Functional analysis of the communication between the young child and his father or mother when reading an illustrated book

Our research is concerned with the observation of communication between the child and his parents (mother-baby vs. father-baby). The children are aged from 30 to 36 months old. Communication was analysed according to utterances functions and social aims. 14 French children, 7 boys and 7 girls were filmed with each of their two parents in their home environment. 5 minutes of verbal interactions were entirely rewritten and analysed according to categories adapted from the speech acts theory. The results indicate that mothers generate more expressive utterances and fathers more commissive ones. Mothers also tend to ask more information requests. The children generate more assertive utterances with the mothers and are more directive with the fathers. Concerning parental feedback functions (approval, reformulation, clarification requests), there is no significant difference between mothers and fathers. These results are being discussed from a pragmatic and differential point of view.     

Book Reviews

Abstract

The verbal and nonverbal behaviors of sixth grade children tutoring third grade children were analyzed. Results showed that when the tutee was doing well there was a greater proportion of positively toned affective statements made by the tutor, and when the tutee was doing poorly there were more negatively toned affective statements. Similarly, the nonverbal behavior of tutors tended to reflect the performance of the tutee. The relationship between verbal and nonverbal behavior was examined.     

Teachers’ affective presentation of children’s books and young children’s display of affective engagement during classroom book reading

This study examines how teachers’ use of affective strategies (voice intonation, dramatization, personal involvement comments) during the reading and discussion of books influence young children’s affective reactions (dramatization, personal engagement, language play comments). Twenty kindergarten teachers read four books, two fiction and two information ones (narrative/expository text). We found significant differences in both teachers’ affective presentation and young children’s affective reactions between fiction and information books, between the two fiction books but not between the narrative and expository text. A strong bi-directional relationship was found between teachers’ affective presentation of stories and young children’s affective reactions. In particular, teachers’ personal involvement comments prompted children’s personal engagement reactions, teachers’ reenactment was followed by children’s imitations of such reenactments and teachers’ voice intonation elicited children’s personal engagement comments. On the other hand, children’s use of paralinguistic cues and personal engagement comments reinforced teachers’ use of voice intonation and personal involvement comments. Finally, text features, such as rhyming, were followed by children’s language play.     

Maternal depression and motherese: temporal and intonational features

Children of depressed parents are at increased risk for depression and other developmental problems. Recent research indicates that disturbances exist in face-to-face interactions between depressed mothers and their infants. In the present study, the effects of maternal depression on motherese, an interactive behavior that plays a significant role in affective, cognitive, and social development, were examined. 2 paralinguistic features of motherese were examined: temporal parameters of utterances and pauses and the frequency of use of 5 types of intonation contours typically found in motherese utterances. Face-to-face interactions between 36 mothers and their 3-4-month-old infants were audio-recorded, and hard copy records of pitch contours and relative intensity were produced for 2-min interaction sequences. Results indicated that depressed mothers failed to modify their behavior according to the behavior of the infant. They were significantly slower to respond to an infant vocalization, had more variable utterances and pauses, and were less likely to utilize the exaggerated intonation contours that are characteristic of motherese. The results provide evidence for a mechanism through which maternal depression increases the infant's risk for psychopathology.     

Feelings on feedback: Children’s emotional responses during mathematics problem solving

Theories of learning emphasize the importance of both the cognitive and affective state of the learner. The current study focused on children’s affective reactions to corrective feedback during mathematics problem solving. Eighty-seven elementary school children (M age = 7.6 years, 41% female, 68% White) solved mathematical equivalence problems during an online video call and received trial-by-trial feedback on their answers. Trained researchers used children’s facial expressions, tone of voice, and verbal statements to quantify their positive and negative affect on each trial. Overall, children tended to express more positive affect than negative affect. However, negative affect was more prominent when the child was incorrect and received negative feedback, and higher negative affect was associated with lower accuracy and lower persistence on the task. These results provide novel empirical evidence for the role of emotions during children’s STEM learning in a non-evaluative context.     

Regression and reorganization of intonation between 6 and 23 months

The purpose of this study was to describe the pattern in which English-speaking children acquire intonation. A second goal was to account for emerging intonation from a theoretical perspective. Six groups of 10 children each between the ages of 6 and 23 months participated in individual play sessions with their mothers and an experimenter. Pitch contours were acoustically analyzed in monosyllabic utterances produced by each child. The observed nonlinear shape of intonation development suggested a linguistically based pattern of regression and reorganization. However, the precocious expression of intonation in the youngest infants also pointed to the role of physiological universals and emotional experience. It is concluded that children's early intonation reflects biological, affective, and linguistic influences.     

Maternal Beliefs as Long-Term Predictors of Mother-Child Interaction and Report

2 kinds of parental beliefs: endorsed rearing philosophy (authoritative-authoritarian dimension) and affective attitude toward child (positive-negative affect dimension) were examined in 20 normal and 36 depressed mothers as long-term predictors of their rearing behaviors and interaction patterns with their children, and of their ratings of child externalizing problems (Achenbach CBCL). The beliefs were measured when the children were toddlers (Time 1), and maternal behaviors 2-3 years later (Time 2). Mothers' endorsement of the belief in authoritative parenting predicted their frequent avoidance of prohibitive interventions. It also predicted maternal autonomy-granting to the child (more compliant and liberal responses to child-initiated control interventions). Endorsed child-rearing philosophy was a relatively more important predictor of behavior for normal mothers, and affective attitude toward child for the behavior of depressed mothers. Both actual child noncompliance and parental beliefs predicted mothers' ratings of externalizing problems in their children. The former was relatively more important for normal and latter for depressed mothers.     

Attributions,affect, and behavior in abuse-risk mothers: a laboratory study

OBJECTIVE: There were two main aims: first, to assess parental attributions about child behavior in abuse-risk and nonclinic parents. Second, to assess how attributions predict affective and behavioral reactions to child behavior. METHOD: Internal-external attributions relating to the causes of child behavior were compared across mothers at-risk of child abuse (n = 40) and mothers who reported no significant parental or child conduct or behavior problems (n = 20). Mothers' attributions about the causes of the behavior of their own child and an unfamiliar child were recorded in response to the presentation of videotaped excerpts of the behavior. RESULTS: Results highlighted that compared with nonclinic mothers, abuse-risk mothers had a tendency to attribute positive child behavior to more external causes and negative child behavior to more internal causes. Differences were also found between parental cognitions about clearly positive, clearly naughty, and ambiguous child behavior. In the abuse-risk group, positive child behavior predicted coercive parenting when it elicited angry feelings in the mother; ambiguous and naughty child behavior led to coercive parenting through valence ratings of "deviant" and attributions of "internality." Analyses within the abuse-risk group showed that parental attributions are predictive of parental coerciveness for unfamiliar behavior. As behavior becomes more familiar, ratings of its valence and the affect it elicits override attributional activity. CONCLUSIONS: Parental attributions about the causes of child behavior differ according to the valence and familiarity of that behavior, and discriminate between parents at risk for child abuse. Further, attributions are predictive of the affective and behavioral responses the parent makes to the child's behavior for ambiguous or unfamiliar behavior. Evidence was found for the validity of using videotaped stimuli of the behavior of known and unknown children as a method of assessing parental attributions.     

Attachment and bookreading patterns: A study of mothers,fathers, and their toddlers

This study, involving 138 families rearing firstborn sons, extends work on bookreading by relating quality of parent-child interactive exchange during bookreading to contemporaneous and antecedent assessments of infant-parent attachment security. One parent and the child were observed when children were 12, 13, 18, and 20 months. At the first and third visit, infant-mother attachment security was assessed, with infant-father attachment security being assessed at the second and fourth visit. Following the assessment of attachment security at 18 and 20 months, parent and child were videotaped in a bookreading session. At 18 and 20 months, children responded to the pictures in a book by pointing and labelling, and their parents tried to initiate these reactions by following predictable routines. In contrast to other mothers, insecure-avoidant mothers were more inclined to read the verbal text and less inclined to initiate interactions around the pictures. Insecure-avoidant children were less inclined to respond to the book and were more distracted. In insecure-resistant dyads, overcontrolling and overstimulating behavior by the mother appeared to covary with ambivalence on the part of the children. The results do not support a similar pattern for the fatherchild dyads. Implications for family literacy programs are discussed.     

A Comparative Exploration of the Pedagogical Quality of Parent-Led Child Care Centers and Regular Child Care in The Netherlands

Research Findings: This small-scale study features the 1st comparative exploration of the pedagogical quality of parent-led child care and regular child care in The Netherlands. The quality of the interaction skills and the affective relationships between adults and children was evaluated and compared with those of regular child care centers. On average parents in parent-led child care had interactions with adequate to good sensitive responsiveness, respect for autonomy, structuring and limit setting, and verbal communication. Developmental stimulation and fostering positive peer interactions proved to be weaker areas. Parents’ perceptions of the affective relationship with children in the group were characterized by a high level of closeness and a low level of dependency and conflict. Parents experienced a greater degree of closeness but also more conflict and in particular greater dependency with their own children than with the other children. A comparison between parent-led centers and regular urban child care centers revealed some small but significant differences in pedagogical quality. Practice or Policy: Parents can play a more active role in both the design and implementation of child care. It seems interesting to pilot new child care formats in which parents and professional staff collaborate more closely.     

Changes in parent-child interaction in response to intervention

Parent-child interactions during the early years form the basis of many types of skill acquisitions, including fine motor and communication skills. Early intervention programmes aimed at promoting the attainments of children with disabilities or learning delays often suggest ways in which parents can interact with their children. The present study examined whether such intervention changes the nature of the parent-child interaction, using two groups of typically developing infants. The mothers of these two groups of prelinguistic children aged 10–12 months and 17–18 months were recorded talking to their infants when playing with a toy and then when asked to encourage their child to play in a particular way. Analyses of the affective and perceptual salience of the pitch of the mothers’ voices indicated that with the younger infants, but not the older infants, both the affective quality and the dynamic range of the mothers’ voices was reduced in the second condition. It is argued that this reduction enables the younger infants to concentrate on the task but restricts access to the linguistic content of what is said. The implications of these findings for intervention programmes are discussed.     

Intelligence and personality profile of battering parents in Greece: a comparative study

Studies on parental intelligence and personality characteristics of battering parents are often contradictory. This research is part of a large project on child abuse and neglect in Athens aiming at identifying abusing families and studying the characteristics of parents, children, siblings, as well as welfare and legal issues. Thirty-three battering parents (17 mothers and 16 fathers) and 33 matched controls were investigated with the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale and Cattell's 16 Personality Factor Questionnaire (16 PF). The mean age of fathers was 39.9 and of mothers 29.1 years. They belonged primarily to the low socioeconomic class. No difference was found in the I.Q.s of battering fathers compared to controls while battering mothers' general, verbal and performance I.Q.s were significantly lower than those of the control group as well as of battering fathers' I.Q.s. Battering mothers were found significantly more shy, restrained, timid and threat-sensitive (Factor H of the 16 PF), and undisciplined, self-conflicted, following own urges (Factor Q3 of the 16 PF) than the control mothers. Factor H also was found to differentiate significantly between battering and control fathers but in the opposite direction than that of mothers. The above results are discussed and interpreted within the context of Greek cultural characteristics and intercultural comparisons.     

Sensitive periods in the development of attachment and the age of entry into day care

This study investigated how the age of entry into regular group day care may influence, in the context of other relevant variables, some short-time outcomes of this experience. In particular the study focused on behaviours expressing well-being or discomfort in the day care environment during the third year. Subjects were 129 young children who were enrolled in group day care when they were 6–29 months old. During their third year their social behaviour was evaluated by caregivers with the Day Care Adaptation Scale. Researchers observed 54 of the children in reunion with their parents. The quality of care was rated with the ITERS scale. It was found that children who started day care in the intervals 6–12 months and 18–23 months displayed more frequently difficult reunions with their mothers, and were rated as less resistant to frustration. Children who started day care from 12–17 months showed lower relational distress. Some significant relationships were found between the ratings of ITERS and the Day Care Adaptation Scale. These findings are discussed with reference to theories of attachment.     

Indian mothers' perceptions of their roles in their daughters' university course choices

This paper presents new findings on the experiences of Indian mothers in the roles they play in their daughters' higher education (HE) subject choices. Whilst there are existing studies on White British mothers and parents more generally in terms of parental involvement in education, and a growing number of papers presenting results on Bangladeshi and Pakistani parents, evidence on Indian parents (and students) is relatively sparse. In particular, there is a lack of research where Indian parents are given space to voice their own narratives in their own words. In the main, existing studies focus on parents from the viewpoint of their children as students. This qualitative study involved semi‐structured interviews with nine Indian mothers from different areas in England. Commonalities and disparities between the experiences of Indian mothers presented here and accounts of White mothers of similar class and educational backgrounds presented in existing literature are analysed using an intersectional lens. Results show that working class Indian mothers could be making up some of their disadvantage in terms of social and cultural capital through family and community networks. Furthermore, mothers regard younger relatives as potential sources of important knowledge and resources that could help them and their daughters navigate the HE landscape. This has not been found in studies on White mothers where the emphasis instead has been on the exchange of knowledge from adults to the younger generation. This article arises out of an ESRC funded doctoral study of choice at university for British South Asian women.     

Children exposed to obscene phone calls: what they remember and tell

OBJECTIVE: This case study examined children's reports from an obscene phone call (i.e., a verbal sexual abuse). We investigated which type of information the children reported, the completeness and accuracy of the children's statements, and whether there were systematic patterns in terms of memory distortions and omissions. METHOD: The completeness and the accuracy of the children's statements were examined by matching 64 children's statements given during police interviews with a detailed documentation of each phone call, made by the perpetrator during the actual phone calls. RESULTS: All children remembered the phone call per se, but they were found to omit almost all of the sexual and sensitive information (perpetrator's questions and statements) and about 70% of the neutral information given by the perpetrator. However, the children were accurate in the information they did report. CONCLUSIONS: The fact that the children did remember more of the neutral information suggests that they actually remembered the sexual information as well, but that they chose not to report it. Results indicate that children who have been sexually abused may remember more than they report in an initial interview. One possible underlying reason is that children experience shame or embarrassment.     

Social interactions and play patterns of parents and toddlers with feminine, masculine, and neutral toys

Children as young as 18 months display sex-stereotyped toy choices. The present study was designed to determine whether parents encourage involvement with sex-stereotyped toys or avoidance of cross-sex-stereotyped toys and to determine whether masculine and feminine toys lead to different patterns of parent-child interaction, regardless of gender. 40 parent-toddler dyads were videotaped while playing with 6 different sets of sex-stereotyped toys. Equal numbers of boys and girls were observed with mothers and fathers. The children showed greater involvement when playing with same-sex-typed toys than with cross-sex toys even when statistically controlling for parents' behaviors. Parents' verbal behaviors, involvement, and proximity to the child differed across toy groups, regardless of the parent's or child's gender. Parents' initial nonverbal responses to the toys, however, were more positive when the toys were stereotyped for the child's and parent's gender than when they were not.     

Parents’ Expectations for and Reactions to Children's Racial Biases

How do parents think about and react to their children's racial biases? Across three studies (N = 519) we investigated whether and how parents’ Internal Motivation to Respond without Prejudice Scale (IMS) predicted standards for their children's race-related behavior, and tested parents’ affective reactions to imagining their children violating their standards. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that parents (of 4- to 12-year-old children) with high IMS set more stringent standards for their children's race-related behavior than their low IMS counterparts. Upon considering their children expressing racial bias, high IMS parents reported negative self-directed affect (i.e., guilt; Studies 2 and 3), an affective response that motivates prejudice reduction in adults. The results have implications for involving parents in prejudice interventions targeting children's biases.     

Children's use of a verbal-nonverbal consistency principle to infer truth and lying

Children's use of a verbal-nonverbal consistency principle to infer truth and lying was investigated in 2 experiments. In Experiment 1, kindergarten (5-year-olds), second- (7-year-olds), and fourth-grade (9-year-olds) children judged the truthfulness of stimulus persons whose verbal communication and nonverbal communication varied in valence (positive, neutral, and negative). In Experiment 2, children from the same 3 grades were presented part of the verbal communications on audiotape and a similar set of general verbal communications. They were asked to predict what facial expression the speaker would show if he or she was telling the truth or lying. The findings yielded by both experiments indicated that the use of the verbal-nonverbal consistency principle increased with age. Use of that principle was demonstrated by fourth grade children who judged that telling the truth, as opposed to lying, was shown by a consistency between the affective valence of the verbal and the nonverbal communications.     

Mother-child interactional patterns in high-and low-risk mothers

Objective: The aim of the present study was to determine the extent to which mother-child interactional patterns in high-and low-risk (for child physical abuse) mothers were similar to patterns observed in physically abusive parents.Method: Ten high-risk and 10 demographically similar low-risk mother-child dyads were studied. Trained observers coded maternal-child interaction patterns in the home during five 1-hour periods using the Standardized Observation Codes system.Results: As expected, high-risk mothers made fewer neutral approaches to their children, displayed more negative behaviors toward their children, and made more indiscriminant responses to their children's prosocial behavior. Expected risk group differences were not found in the number of neutral instructions or positive responses, albeit the proportion of positive responses out of the total number of positive and negative responses was higher for low-risk mothers. After control for educational differences, risk group differences remained in the rates of neutral approaches and the number of indiscriminant behaviors made in response to children's prosocial behaviors.Conclusions: The observational data indicated that high-risk mothers display some behaviors similar to those observed in physically abusive mothers. The finding that high-risk mothers made more indiscriminate or noncontingent responses when reacting to their children's prosocial behavior is consistent with a coercive model of child physical abuse.     

Family conversation style: its effect on the deaf child's participation

This study investigated the conversations of 10 deaf children and their families at dinnertime and documented types of verbal exchanges, both spoken and signed, among family members. Results were compared with two other studies of deaf children's conversations--with teachers and with mothers during playtime. This study found that the deaf children responded more loquaciously to questions than they did to statements or expressions of ideas; and the children did not have success in continuing topics of conversation. Suggestions are presented to help families engage their deaf children in conversations in more depth.