Interactions of African American infants and their mothers: relations with development at 1 year of age

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A Within-subjects Experimental Protocol to Assess the Effects of Social Input on Infant EEG
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I F Wallace1, J E Roberts, D E Lodder

  • 1Research Triangle Institute, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, Albert Einstein College of Medicine, 27709-2194, USA.

Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research : JSLHR
|August 26, 1998
PubMed

The relationships between aspects of mother-infant interaction and both communication and cognitive skills at 1 year of age were examined in 92 African American dyads, of whom 64 (70%) fell below the poverty line. Ratings of warmth, sensitivity, responsiveness, encouragement of initiative, stimulation, and elaborativeness during a semistructured play interaction were correlated with measures of global cognition, expressive and receptive communication, and communication use. The overall quality of the home environment and maternal ratings of stimulation and elaborativeness were the most consistent correlates of infant communication measures. Relationships were stronger in middle-income than lower-income dyads. These results support the linkage of didactic and functional aspects of maternal behavior to cognitive and communication skills at 1 year of age for African American infants.

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