This study explored the support, both verbal and non-verbal, mothers offer to their infants as they play games together and sought to determine how this support might play a role in the development of both the linguistic and game-playing abilities of the infants. Twenty-five mothers were videotaped as they played peek-a-boo and ball with their infants when they were 6, 9, 12, 15, 18 and 24 months old. A language test was administered at the end of each session. Nine maternal scaffolding behaviours were identified and analysed in order to determine how they vary in the two games and with increasing age of the infants. Mothers were found to use different scaffolding behaviours as a function of the game at hand. The amount and type of scaffolding used varied with the children's age as well. With the exception of the 6-month session, there was a consistently high use of scaffolding through out the time span of the study. Contrary to what Bruner (1983) suggests, no strong relationship between maternal scaffolding behaviours and infant language level was found. Some interpretations are offered for the lack of direct correlation between language development and such well-adapted support of social game-playing.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bates, E. (1993). Comprehension and production in early language development. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 58(3-4), 222-42.
2.
Blishen, B. & McRoberts, H. (1976). A revised socioeconomic index for occupation in Canada. Revue Canadienne de Sociology et d'Anthropologie, 13, 71-9.
3.
Brown, R. (1973). A First Language (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press).
4.
Bruner, J.S. (1975a). From communication to language - a psychological perspective. Cognition, 3(3), 255-87.
5.
— (1975b). The ontogenesis of speech acts. Journal of Child Language, 2(1), 19.
6.
— (1978a). Acquiring the uses of language. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 32, 204-18.
7.
— ( 1978b). Learning how to do things with words. In J. Bruner & A. Garton (eds), Human Growth and Development. Wolfson College Lectures (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
8.
— ( 1983). The acquisition of pragmatic commitments. In R.M. Golinkoff (ed.), The Transiton from Prelinguistic to Linguistic Communication (Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum).
9.
— (1984). Interaction, communication and self. Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychratry, 23(1), 1-7.
10.
Bruner J., Caudhill, E. & Ninio, A. (1977). Language and experience. In R. S. Peters (ed.), John Dewey Reconsidered (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul).
11.
Bruner, J.S. & Sherwood, V. (1975). Peekaboo and the learning of rule structures. In J. Bruner, A. Jolly & K. Sylva (eds), Play, its Role in Development and Evolution (Harmondsworth, Middx: Penguin).
12.
Bzock, K.R. & League, R. (1980). Receptive-Expressive Emergent Language Scale (Gainesville, FL: Computer Management Resources ).
13.
Camaioni, L. & Laicardi, C. (1985). Early social games and the acquisition of language . British Journal of Developmental Psychology, 3, 31-9.
14.
Chapman, R. (1981). Mother-child interaction in the second year of life: its role in language development. In R. Scheifelbusch & D. Bricker (eds), Early Language Acquisition and Intervention ( Baltimore: University Park Press).
15.
Flanders, T., Cossette, L., Ricard, M. & Decane, T.G. (in press). Comprehension of rules and structures in mother-infant games: a longitudinal study of the first two years of life. International Journal of Behavior al Development.
16.
Flanders, T. & Ricard, M. (1992). Infant timing of vocalizations in two mother-infant games: a longitudinal study. First Language, 12, 285-97.
17.
Furrow, D., Nelson, K. & Benedict, H. (1979). Mothers speech to children and syntactic development: some simple relationships. Journal of Child Language, 6, 423-42.
18.
Gleitman, L., Newport, E. & Gleitman, H. (1984). The current status of the motherese hypothesis . Journal of Child Language, 11, 43-79.
19.
Green, J., Gustafson, G. & West, M. (1980). Effects of infant development on mother-infant games. Child Development, 51, 199-207.
20.
Griffiths, M. (1967). The Abilities of Babies A Study in Mental Measurement , rev. ed. (London: University of London Press).
21.
Hodapp, R., Goldfield, E. & Boyatzis, C. (1984). The use of maternal scaffolding in mother-infant games. Child Development, 55, 772-81.
22.
Hoff-Ginsberg, C. (1986). Function and structure in maternal speech: their relation to the child's development of syntax. Developmental Psychology, 22, 155-63.
23.
— (1990). Maternal speech and the child's development of syntax: a further look. Journal of Child Language, 17, 85-99.
24.
Holdgrafer, G., Kyssela, G., McCarthy, C. & Stewart, T. (1987). The effects of joint activity intervention on children's pragmatic language skills. Paper presented at the Society for Research in Child Development, Baltimore .
25.
Kilmon, C., Barber, N., Chapman, N. (1991). Instruments for the screening of speech/ language development in children. Journal of Pediatric Health Care , 5(2), 61-70.
26.
Lieven, E.1984. Interaction style and children's language learning. Topics in Language Disorders, 4, 15-23.
27.
Maccoby, E.E. & Martin, J.A. (1983). Socialization in the context of the family: parent-child interaction. In E. M. Hetherington (ed.), Handbook of Child Psychology, Vol. 4 (New York: Wiley).
28.
Norusis, M.J. (1988). The Guide to Data Analysis for SPSSIPC+ (Chicago, IL: SPSS).
29.
Olsen-Fulero, L. (1982). Style and stability in mother conversational behavior: a study of individual differences. Journal of Child Language , 9, 543-64.
30.
Platt, J. & Coggins, T.E. (1990). Comprehension of social-action games in prelinguistic children: levels of participation and effect of adult structure. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 55, 315-26.
31.
Ratner, N. & Bruner, J.S. (1978). Games, social exchange and the acquisition of language. Journal of Child Language, 5, 391-401.
32.
Reynell, J. (1977). Reynell Developmental Language Scales, rev. ed (Windsor: NFER-Nelson Publishing Co.).
33.
Ricard, M. & Decane, T.G. (1984). Observations du nourrisson et micro-ordinateur: considérations methodologiques. Écologie Éthologie Humaines , 3(1), 129-37.
34.
Ross, H. & Kay, D. (1980). The origins of social games. In K. Rubin (ed.), Children's Play ( San Francisco: Jossey-Bass).
35.
Snow, C. (1977). Mothers' speech research: from input to interaction . In C. Snow & C. Ferguson (eds), Talking to Children ( Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).
36.
Snow, C. & Ferguson, C. (eds) (1977). Talking to Children Language Input and Acquisition (New York: Cambridge University Press).
37.
Stem, D., Jaffe, J., Beebe, B. & Bennett, S. (1975). Vocalizing in unison and in alternation: two modes of communication within the mother-infant dyad. In D. Aaronson & R. Rieber (eds), Developmental Psycholinguistics and Communication Disorders (New York: New York Academy of Sciences).
38.
Stem D., Spicker, S., Barnett, J. & MacKain, D. (1983). The prosody of maternal speech: infant age and the context related changes. Journal of Child Language, 10, 1-15.
39.
Tamis-LeMonda, C.S. & Bornsteein, M. (1990). Language, play, and attention at one year. Infant Behavior and Development, 13(1), 85-98.
40.
Trevarthen, C. & Hubley, P. (1978). Secondary intersubjectivity confiding and acts of meaning in the first year. In A. Lock (ed.), Action, Gesture and Symbol (London: Academic Press).
41.
Tukey, J.W. (1977). Exploratory Data Analysis ( Menlo Park, CA: Addison Wesley).
42.
Vibbert, M. & Bernstein, M.H. (1989). Specific associations between domains of mother-child interaction and toddler referential language and pretense play InfantBehavior and Development, 12(2), 163-84.
43.
Vygotsky, L. (1986). Thought and Language (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press).
44.
Yoder, P.J. & Kaiser, A.P. (1989). Alternative explanations for the relationship between maternal verbal interaction style and child language development. Journal of Child Language, 16, 141-60.
