An increasing emphasis is being placed on the importance of speech, language and communication (SLC) development during the first two years of life, since this contributes to cognitive ability and to later educational outcomes. This article explores what disadvantaged, first-time mothers know and understand about three key contributors to positive infant SLC development: child-directed speech, book-sharing and motherÁchild interaction. Fifty mothers completed questionnaires and 20 mothers were interviewed. The findings show that: mothers were unsure of the value of child-directed speech; few mothers offered a rationale for book-sharing; the interviewed teen mothers were not sharing books with their babies and although most mothers agreed that repeating sounds supported language development, mothers were less sure about whether babies could copy speech sounds at 2 months. Although this is a small-scale study, it offers some useful pointers for supporting mothers in child communication and some new areas for further research. This paper explores how disadvantaged, first-time mothers support infant speech, language and communication (SLC). While measures of SLC development at later ages and consequent interventions are of great importance, Melhuish, Belsky, and Leyland (2007, 2) suggest a need to identify developmental influences during the first two years of life:Children growing up in impoverished circumstances are generally exposed to language that differs both qualitatively and quantitatively from the experience of more fortunate children. A social class gradient in language skills is already emerging by the time a child is two years old and the gap widens substantially by the time children reach statutory school age.This key observation, a language gap between disadvantaged and more advantaged children by two years of age, triggered this research into how SLC skills are mediated by mothers during the first months of child life. The expansion of childcare provision catering for children from infancy onwards and an increased government *