Mother-child synchrony and communicative reciprocity in late-talking toddlers

Eighteen mother-child dyads that included 24- to 31-month-old boys who were late talkers were compared in terms of social cues and dyadic synchrony with dyads including normally developing boys matched with the other boys in terms of SES and nonverbal ability. Mothers of late talkers did not differ from comparison group mothers in degree of synchrony with their children nor in their use of social cues. Similarly, late talkers did not differ from comparison children in play synchrony, compliance, or overall communicativeness, although they made significantly fewer clear verbalizations, produced significantly more unintelligible utterances, and relied more heavily on gestural and nonverbal communicative cues. Dyads with late talkers manifested stronger patterns of relationship between the variables studied than comparison dyads, with highly controlling mothers tending to be low in synchrony and to have children who were low in both compliance and synchrony.