The discourse interaction between adult and child was examined in terms of the content of their utterances, and the linguistic and contextual relations between their messages, in order to investigate how children use the information from adults' input sentences to form contingent responses. The analyses described were based on longitudinal data from four children from approximately 21 to 3 6 months of age. Categories of child discourse, their development and their interactions with aspects of prior adult utterances form the major results of the study. Child utterances were identified as adjacent (immediately preceded by an adult utterance), or as nonadjacent (not immediately preceded by an adult utterance). Adjacent utterances were either contingent (shared the same topic and added new information relative to the topic of the prior utterance), imitative (shared the same topic but did not add new information), or noncontingent (did not share the same topic). From the beginning, adjacent speech was greater than nonadjacent speech. Contingent speech increased over time; in particular, linguistically contingent speech (that expanded the verb relation of the prior adult utterance with added or replaced constituents within a clause) showed the greatest developmental increase. Linguistically contingent speech occurred more often after questions than nonquestions. The results are discussed in terms of how the differential requirements for processing information in antecedent messages is related to language learning.

This study examined the relation between dyadic synchrony and child compliance during the toddler period. Mothers were instructed to teach their children a tea-party script. Interactions were broken into turns, and turns were coded for degree of topic-maintenance. Those turns that maintained the partner's topic were called synchronous, and those that did not were called asynchronous. Sequential analysis used to describe the moment-to-moment pattern of dyadic exchanges revealed that children were most likely to produce synchronous turns directly following maternal synchronous turns. Conversely, children were almost always asynchronous following maternal asynchronous turns. When children broke joint topics by producing asynchronous turns, mothers frequently repaired them by following the child's lead. The extent to which children carried out tea-party instructions was also influenced by dyadic interaction patterns. Synchrony was positively correlated with child compliance. Moreover, children were more likely to comply with synchronous caregiver instructions than with asynchronous instructions. Mothers who were less likely to follow their children's breaks in topic had children who were the least likely to carry out tea-party instructions. These results are discussed in light of both cognitive and emotional factors that characterize development during the toddler period.

The purposes of this study were to explore predictors of maternal confidence during toddlerhood among mothers of children born preterm and fullterm and to determine if mothers of toddlers born preterm were less confident in parenting than mothers of toddlers born fullterm. Mothers of children born preterm (n = 62) and fullterm (n = 70) aged 12 months through 36 months (postnatal age) completed a measure of maternal confidence during toddlerhood, the Toddler Care Questionnaire (TCQ), and a family background form. Major predictor variables included the extent of the mother's prior childcare experience, toddler birth order, and maternal report of toddler handicaps and major health problems. Data on neonatal condition were collected from hospital records. There was no difference in mean TCQ score between the preterm and fullterm groups. In the preterm group, prior childcare experience, birth order, and maternal report of the toddler having cerebral palsy explained 33% of the variance. In the fullterm group, prior childcare experience, maternal age and toddler's birthweight explained 38% of the variance. The findings are discussed in light of Bandura's theory of self-efficacy (1982).

Developmental outcomes among preterm infants are highly variable. Research has shown that a potent factor in predicting outcome is some quality of the interactions between infants and caregivers. This study explores specific aspects of interaction that may, in part, account for its remedial influence on development. Videotaped interactions between 20 prematurely born toddlers and their mothers were described within a framework having theoretical relevance for language learning--dyadic joint attention to features of the environment. 3 major results are reported. First, the children could be divided into 2 linguistic groups. Children in the Hi group used word combinations productively and talked about relations between objects and events. Children in the Lo language group produced few word combinations and were limited in the relations they talked about. Second, the Lo language pairs did not share common topics as frequently as the Hi pairs. Finally, we found that no single style was used by Lo language dyads in breaking joint attention. Instead, this group was characterized by a broad range of interactive styles. These results are discussed in terms of the facilitating effect interaction may have for the acquisition of language. The findings underscore the need to recognize that poor outcomes can be brought about in many different ways, and that neither single outcomes nor unitary causes for poor outcomes should be expected in preterm populations.

Developmental outcomes among preterm infants are highly variable. Research has shown that a potent factor in predicting outcome is some quality of the interactions between infants and caregivers. This study explores specific aspects of interaction that may, in part, account for its remedial influence on development. Videotaped interactions between 20 prematurely born toddlers and their mothers were described within a framework having theoretical relevance for language learning--dyadic joint attention to features of the environment. 3 major results are reported. First, the children could be divided into 2 linguistic groups. Children in the Hi group used word combinations productively and talked about relations between objects and events. Children in the Lo language group produced few word combinations and were limited in the relations they talked about. Second, the Lo language pairs did not share common topics as frequently as the Hi pairs. Finally, we found that no single style was used by Lo language dyads in breaking joint attention. Instead, this group was characterized by a broad range of interactive styles. These results are discussed in terms of the facilitating effect interaction may have for the acquisition of language. The findings underscore the need to recognize that poor outcomes can be brought about in many different ways, and that neither single outcomes nor unitary causes for poor outcomes should be expected in preterm populations.