Early Child Development and the Home Environment: Consistencies at and Between Four Pre-School Stages

Abstract

A longitudinal study of disadvantages children is described. At six-montly intervals, starting when each chld was twelve months of age, and continuing until he was thirty months old, sixty mother-child pairs were observed, and recorded on videotape, playing together at home. The child's language competence was assessed using the Reynell Developmental Language Scales when he was thirty months of age. Certain variables of observed interactions between mother and child show a significant relationship to the child's developmental status. In particular, the occurrence of intellectual interactions, a maternal technique using speech and a teaching approach are consistently related to development for each age recorded, and are highly stable measures at each age. These results are discussed in terms of causal links between variables of observed interaction, assessed using panel analysis.