Mother-child interaction and resilience in children with early developmental risk

Although prenatal and genetic factors make strong contributions to the emergence of intellectual disability (ID), children's early environment may have the potential to alter developmental trajectories and to foster resilience in children with early risk. The present study examined mother-child interaction and the promotion of competence in 50 children with early developmental delays. Three related but distinct aspects of mother-child interaction were considered: maternal technical scaffolding, maternal positive sensitivity, and mother-child dyadic pleasure. Children were classified as exhibiting undifferentiated delays at age 3, based upon performance on developmental assessments and the absence of known genetic syndromes. Mother-child interaction was assessed at age 4 through observational ratings of structured laboratory tasks, and through naturalistic home observations. ID was identified at age 5 using the dual criteria of clinically significant delays in cognitive functioning and adaptive behavior. Maternal technical scaffolding and dyadic pleasure each uniquely predicted reduced likelihood of later ID, beyond the contributions of children's early developmental level and behavioral functioning. Follow-up analyses suggested that mother-child interaction was primarily important to resilience in the area of adaptive behavior, with scaffolding and dyadic pleasure differentially associated with particular subdomains. Implications for theories of intellectual disability and for family-based early intervention and prevention efforts are discussed.