Parental directiveness and responsivity toward young children with complex communication needs

Area of Science:

• Child Development
• Speech-Language Pathology
• Developmental Disabilities

Background:

• Parent responsiveness is crucial for children with complex communication needs (CCN).
• Understanding longitudinal changes in parent responsiveness informs early intervention strategies.
• Parent-directed responsivity interventions may benefit children with developmental disabilities.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine changes in parent responsiveness to children with CCN over 18 months.
• To investigate the influence of child's language and motor development on parent responsiveness.
• To determine if play context affects parent responsiveness.

Main Methods:

• Longitudinal study over 18 months.
• 37 parents of young children with physical/neurological disabilities participated.
• Home-based parent-child play episodes were videotaped and coded.

Main Results:

• Parents who were initially responsive tended to remain responsive.
• Parents were more directive during object play compared to social play.
• Parental responsiveness was higher during social play than object play.

Conclusions:

• Parent responsiveness to children with developmental disabilities is not consistently lower based on motor or language skills.
• Higher parental directiveness previously reported may stem from object-based play interactions.
• Findings highlight the importance of play context in shaping parent-child interactions.