*Community Health Services Research, Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Parkville, Australia; †Centre for Community Child Health, Royal Children's Hospital, Parkville, Australia; ‡Department of Paediatrics, University of Melbourne, Parkville, Australia; §Department of Speech-Language Pathology, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada; ‖NIHR CLAHRC South West Peninsula (PenCLAHRC), University of Exeter Medical School, Exeter, United Kingdom.
J Dev Behav Pediatr. 2014 May;35(4):274-81. doi: 10.1097/DBP.0000000000000056.
To determine, in a community-based sample of slow-to-talk toddlers, the extent to which specific maternal responsive behaviors at 24 months predict child language at 24 and 36 months.
Mother-child dyads were recruited for this prospective longitudinal study from 3 local government areas spanning low, middle, and high socioeconomic status in Melbourne, Australia. At child age 18 months, 1138 parents completed a 100-word expressive vocabulary checklist; the 251 (22.1%) children scoring ≤20th percentile were then followed up to comprise this study.
Six maternal responsive behaviors (imitations, interpretations, labels, expansions, supportive directives and responsive questions) were derived from mother-child free-play videos collected at 24 months of age and coded using the Observer XT system.
Expressive and receptive language measured at 24 and 36 months of age (Preschool Language Scale-4), blind to maternal responsiveness ratings.
Two hundred and twenty-six of the 251 (90.0%) mother-child dyads were followed up at 36 months. In confounder-adjusted linear regression analyses, expansions, imitations, and responsive questions were strongly associated with better receptive and expressive language at 24 and 36 months. Labels unexpectedly predicted poorer expressive language at 36 months. Expansions were the only maternal behavior that predicted improvement in language between 24 and 36 months.
Maternal responsive behaviors, particularly expansions, offer promise in enhancing early language learning in slow-to-talk toddlers. Parent-child interactions characterized by frequent use of maternal labels at 24 months could also be a predictive marker of those slow-to-talk toddlers at greater risk of persistent language problems.
在一个基于社区的说话迟缓幼儿样本中，确定 24 个月时特定的母亲反应行为在多大程度上预测儿童在 24 个月和 36 个月时的语言能力。
本前瞻性纵向研究从澳大利亚墨尔本的 3 个地方政府区招募了母婴对子，这些地区涵盖了低、中、高社会经济地位。在儿童 18 个月时，1138 名父母完成了 100 字的表达性词汇检查表；然后，对得分≤第 20 百分位数的 251 名（22.1%）儿童进行了随访，组成了本研究。
从 24 个月时收集的母婴自由游戏视频中得出了 6 种母亲反应行为（模仿、解释、标签、扩展、支持性指令和反应性问题），并使用观察者 XT 系统进行了编码。
在 36 个月时，251 名（90.0%）母婴对子中的 226 对被随访。在混杂因素调整的线性回归分析中，扩展、模仿和反应性问题与 24 个月和 36 个月时更好的接受性和表达性语言密切相关。出乎意料的是，标签预测了 36 个月时表达性语言较差。扩展是唯一预测 24 个月至 36 个月之间语言改善的母亲行为。
母亲的反应行为，特别是扩展，为说话迟缓的幼儿增强早期语言学习提供了希望。24 个月时频繁使用母亲标签的亲子互动也可能是那些语言问题持续风险较高的说话迟缓幼儿的预测标志物。
