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ASPECTS OF STRUCTURE AND CONTENT OF MATERNAL TALK WITH INFANTS
Author(s) -
Elias Gordon,
Hayes Alan,
Broerse Jack
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-7610.1988.tb00743.x
Subject(s) - psychology , developmental psychology , content (measure theory) , mathematics , mathematical analysis
Content of maternal talk in six mothers infant dyads was used to determine whether mothers timed their talk to infants as they would when conversing with an adult. Results indicated that maternal talk of an informative nature (Type 1 acts) tended to follow a brief intervening interval of silence, while maternal talk containing little or no information (Type 2 acts) tended to occur when the mothers “talked with” (covocalized with) their infants. In addition, there was a significant trend for the overall proportion of Type 1 acts to increase over infant age. These findings support the view that, during mother‐infant engagements, mothers behave like sophisticated conversational partners.