Maternal behaviors and child mastery behaviors were examined in 25 children with Down syndrome and 43 typically developing children matched for mental age (24-36 months). During a shared problem-solving task, there were no group differences in maternal directiveness or support for autonomy, and mothers in the two groups used similar verbal strategies when helping their child. There were also no group differences in child mastery behaviors, measured as persistence with two optimally challenging tasks. However, the two groups differed in the relationships of maternal style with child persistence. Children with Down syndrome whose mothers were more supportive of their autonomy in the shared task displayed greater persistence when working independently on a challenging puzzle, while children of highly directive mothers displayed lower levels of persistence. For typically developing children, persistence was unrelated to maternal style, suggesting that mother behaviors may have different causes or consequences in the two groups.

Co-vocalizations and inter-speaker silences were used to investigate the vocal engagements of six mother-infant dyads. Observed records of vocal behaviours were compared with records in which the vocal behaviours were randomized. The results indicated that there were significantly fewer co-vocalizations in observed than in randomized records; that the durations of inter-speaker silences following infant vocalization were significantly shorter in observed than in randomized records; and that the durations of inter-speaker silences following maternal vocalization were significantly longer in observed than in randomized records. These findings were interpreted as being consistent with the view that mothers attempt to engage their infants in turn-taking encounters, and that descriptions of such engagements in terms of conversational metaphors may be misleading in this regard.

An explanation for the handwriting difficulties experienced by children with spina bifida myelomeningocele was sought within theframework of a closedloop theory of motor skill acquisition. The handwritingperformance of 34 children (16 boys and 18 girls) aged6.16 to 13.42 years was detailed with aoailable norms, Regression analyses were then performed for thefive handwriting components of speed, alignment, letter formation, spacing, and size. The regressions for speed, alignment, and letter formation reached statistical significance. For speed, age provided thegreatest explanation of performance (R2 = .62, P = .008). Alignment was explained substantially by age, handedness, scholastic aptitude, and kinesthesia (RZ = .55, P = .03). utter formation was detennined primarily by age and kinesthesia (R2 . 71, P = .001,). Theoverallregressionwasnotsignificantforspacing(RZ = .39, P = .30), or size (RZ = .35, P = .43), although a significant single degree of freedom was detectedfor theeffect of age. These findings are discussed in terms of skill acquisition theory.

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The main conclusion was that children with DS in the MA range of 24-36 months do not differ in their persistence with challenging tasks when compared with typically developing children of the same MA. The implication is that motivational development is delayed for children with DS, rather than deficient. However, there were some indications of possible differences in the processes underlying mastery behaviour in the two groups. The study addresses a number of conceptual and methodological issues associated with mastery motivation research, and stresses the important contribution that future longitudinal studies could make.