Mothers' internal state language to toddlers*

Abstract

Two studies are presented which describe how mothers talk about internal states with language‐learning toddlers during social interaction. In study 1, mothers' internal state language was assessed longitudinally when toddlers were 13, 20 and 28 months of age. In study 2, mothers' internal state language addressed to prelinguistic children with Down's syndrome was compared to that observed in mothers of non‐handicapped children. The non‐handicapped children were matched to the children with Down's syndrome in three groups for chronological age, mental age and level of language development. Results indicated that the quantity, complexity, content and attributional focus of mothers' internal state language was significantly affected by the following factors: children's developmental abilities, other child characteristics, differences in social context, and mothers' beliefs about their children's development. Implications of these results and future directions for research are discussed.