A longitudinal study of disadvantages children is described. At six-montly intervals, starting when each chld was twelve months of age, and continuing until he was thirty months old, sixty mother-child pairs were observed, and recorded on videotape, playing together at home. The child's language competence was assessed using the Reynell Developmental Language Scales when he was thirty months of age. Certain variables of observed interactions between mother and child show a significant relationship to the child's developmental status. In particular, the occurrence of intellectual interactions, a maternal technique using speech and a teaching approach are consistently related to development for each age recorded, and are highly stable measures at each age. These results are discussed in terms of causal links between variables of observed interaction, assessed using panel analysis.

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This paper presents data from a small‐scale longitudinal study that examines the importance of life‐stress events in early and late childhood for later attainment and behavioral disturbance. The study sample consists of 59 children, all of whom when first contacted lived in families with low incomes, of low social status, and little education. Therefore, all of the children can be considered disadvantaged, and the influence of life stress events can be assessed uncontaminated by differences in socio‐economic status. At age 9 years, 21 of these children were assessed as disturbed, whereas 38 were not. The results presented suggest that life stress events in early childhood: (1) are of little importance in explaining variations in the behavior of either group of children; and (2) help to explain variations in the attainment of the disturbed, but not the other children. However, life‐stress events in late childhood are (1) of considerable importance in explaining variations in the behavior of both the disturbed and other children; but (2) of little importance in explaining variations in the attainments of either group of children. The findings are discussed with reference to child, parent, and other factors that may act to protect vulnerable children against life event stress.