Children's Peer Research Articles

Children's decision making in cancer therapy: A long-term observational study.

The survival rate of children with cancer has increased substantially in recent years. Shared decision making (i.e., the ability of children with cancer to express their will and share it with medical personnel) has become a particularly important issue. The nature and developmental processes of children's decision making in hospital should be understood. There is, however, a lack of research in this area. From January 2016 to March 2018, we conducted a longitudinal qualitative observational study, within the context of medical anthropology, in a hospital pediatric ward in Japan. We investigated the nature and development of decision making among seven children aged 5-12 years with hematologic cancers. We recorded their everyday behaviors, interactions, narratives, and events in the ward. The recording was conducted systematically and it was analyzed thematically using both variable-oriented and process-oriented modes to assess causal relationships between phenomena. The thematic analysis identified three thematic scenes in which children developed their will regarding cancer treatment: (1) adjusting to hospital life; (2) forming friendships with other children; and (3) communicating with medical personnel. Sharing information, building trusting relationships, and sharing treatment goals with medical personnel were identified as forms of children's participation in medical decision making. Through cultivated friendships, children's peer groups were sources of resilience and strength in overcoming difficulties in hospital life. The development of children's decision making in a pediatric oncology ward was based on various rich human relationships. Such relationships should be promoted to improve shared decision making substantially.

The impact of only child peers on the classroom environment and students’ cognitive and non-cognitive outcomes

We utilize representative and randomly assigned class data in China to study how being integrated with classmates who are only children in a family affects students’ academic and non-cognitive outcomes. A single child has certain common characteristics related to social preferences and learning attitude, which will potentially change the classroom environment. Our findings show that having a 10-percentage-point increase in the proportion of only child peers in the classroom improves students’ test scores by 6.78% of a standard deviation. However, when facing a higher share of only children, students’ mental health and social acclimation will decrease. A somewhat more interesting finding is that only children appear to suffer more from having only child peers than students with siblings regarding social acclimation. A further decomposition of mechanisms suggests that teachers’ teaching strategy, student-parent interactions, and student-student interactions explain a total of approximately 32.52% of this effect on test scores, and the lack of student-student interactions accounts for approximately 22.50% of the loss of social acclimation at school.

Together with my playmates: Preschoolers' peer relationships and interactions in small group settings

Researchers and professionals in the early childhood education context have expressed concern over children's social and emotional behaviours and peer relationships. The current study aimed to investigate how children's interactions in small groups are associated with their peer relationships. Another aim was to learn how children's peer interactions vary at the individual level. The study's participants were 16 five-to-six-year-old full-time kindergarteners. Social network analysis was conducted, based on sociometric nominations, to test the degree centrality of all 16 children's peer acceptance, preference and likability. Video-recorded interactions among all participants were analysed to calculate the children's frequency of prosocial and problem behaviours. Four children's interactions were analysed in more detail. Our results showed a positive correlation between children's peer preferences and their problem behaviours. Furthermore, we observed a positive correlation between children's mutual ties and their prosocial and problem behaviours. We found no linear developmental trend from individual-level interactions. Our results indicate that situational environments relate to children's peer relationships and interaction dynamics. Kindergarten teachers can use this study's results to consider various activities that would encourage children's active interactions with various peers from children's standpoints, rather than adults' perspective. • Initiating behaviour is related to children's mutual liking ties. • Children's peer preference is related to children's problem behaviours. • Prosocial behaviours are much more typical than problem behaviours in peer interaction. • No specific positive development is found concerning children's individual level peer interaction.

Psychometrics of the Pragmatic Rating Scale for School-Age Children With a Range of Linguistic and Social Communication Skills.

Purpose Social communication or pragmatic skills are continuously distributed in the general population. Impairment in these skills is associated with two clinical disorders, autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and social (pragmatic) communication disorder. Such impairment can impact a child's peer acceptance, school performance, and current and later mental health. Valid, reliable, examiner-rated observational measures of social communication from a semistructured language sample are needed to detect social communication impairment. We evaluated the psychometrics of an examiner-rated measure of social (pragmatic) communication, the Pragmatic Rating Scale-School Age (PRS-SA). Method The analytic sample consisted of 130 children, ages 7-12 years, from five mutually exclusive groups: ASD (n = 25), language concern (LC; n = 5), ASD + LC (n = 10), social communication impairment only (n = 22), and typically developing (TD; n = 68). All children received language and autism assessments. The PRS-SA was rated separately using video-recorded communication samples from the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule. Assessment data were employed to evaluate the psychometrics of the PRS-SA. Analysis of covariance models were used to assess whether the PRS-SA would detect differences in social communication functioning across the five groups. Results The PRS-SA demonstrated strong internal reliability, concurrent validity, and interrater reliability. PRS-SA scores were significantly higher in all groups compared to the TD group and differed significantly in most pairwise comparisons; the ASD + LC group had the highest (more atypical) scores. Conclusions The PRS-SA shows promise as a measure of social communication skills in school-age verbally fluent children with a range of social and language abilities. More research is needed with a larger sample, including a wider age range and geographical diversity, to replicate findings. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.15138240.

Caregiver burden and related factors in caregivers of patients with childhood-onset systemic lupus erythematosus.

Having a child with a chronic illness is a source of stress for the whole family, especially the primary caregiver. The aim of this study was to evaluate the associations between caregiver burden and both the caregiver's and child's psychological symptoms in a cohort of children with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). Thirty-four patients (aged 9-18years) with childhood-onset SLE and their caregivers participated in this study. The control group was composed of healthy children and their caregivers. Questionnaires were used to evaluate caregiver burden and the psychological status of parents and children and adolescents with and without SLE. No significant difference was found between the study and control groups for caregiver burden, anxiety and depression in parents, and psychological status in children. Caregiver burden was positively correlated with parent's depression, anxiety, and behavioral and peer problems of the children, and it was negatively correlated with the children's prosocial behaviors. According to regression analyses, the parents' depression and children's peer relationship had a positive effect on caregiver burden scores. Physicians should be aware of the presence of psychological symptoms in patients with childhood-onset SLE and their caregivers because it can affect caregiver burden and the caregiver's psychological state. Key points •Caregiver burden was positively correlated with parent's depression and anxiety. •Caregiver burden was positively correlated with children's behavioral and peer problems. •Caregiver burden was negatively correlated with child's prosocial behaviors.

Associations between maternal reactions to child negative emotions and child social competence: A longitudinal study.

According to a heuristic model of emotion socialization, the implications of parental reactions to child emotions may vary by child characteristics. Children's knowledge about culturally bound, emotion display rules may be one of such characteristics, as it may alter children's interpretations of their parents' behaviors. The interrelationships among parental unsupportive reactions to child negative emotions, child emotion knowledge, and child social competence, however, have rarely been investigated. The present study examined whether Chinese children's emotion knowledge moderated the associations of mothers' minimizing and punitive reactions with changes in children's peer acceptance, social cognition, and aggression over time. On two occasions separated by about 1 year, data were collected from 330 children, their mothers, and class teachers from 10 kindergartens in Hong Kong, China. The age of children in Wave 1 averaged 4.81 years (SD = 0.38), and 56% of them (n = 186) were girls. Multilevel models indicated that maternal minimizing reactions were not significantly linked to changes in child social competence. But, for children with more knowledge about emotion display rules, maternal punitive reactions were linked to increases in child peer acceptance and social cognition and decreases in aggression over time. Theoretically, findings demonstrated the interplay of parental socialization practices and child individual characteristics in shaping child development. Practically, findings pointed to the importance of explaining emotion display rules to children in Chinese communities and helping children to balance self-expression of emotions with consideration of others' feelings. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

‘To reveal or to conceal’- Disclosure strategies in parents of children with epilepsy in India

Purpose: Disclosure of epilepsy is a relevant but under-researched topic in epilepsy research. This study was done to assess the disclosure strategies in parents of CWE in a developing country with conservative culture. The study also assessed the influence of demographic factors and seizure characteristics on the choice of disclosure. Enablers and barriers behind disclosure and the consequences after disclosure were evaluated. Methods: A cross-sectional analytical, self-report survey was done in 284 parents of CWE with the help of a semi-structured questionnaire over a 7-month period in the paediatric epilepsy clinic. Disclosure was considered present if epilepsy was revealed to two or more of the five target groups (extended family, school, friends, neighbours, and peers of children). Separate set of questions was given for reasons behind their choice and consequences after disclosure. For continuous variables, unpaired T test or Mann – Whitney U test between group and for categorized variables, Pearson's Chi square test or Fisher's exact test was used. Results: 92.96 % of 284 subjects disclosed their child's epilepsy while 7.04% concealed. Demographic factors and seizure characteristics did not influence the disclosure choice. Most parents revealed to the extended family followed by teachers. Type of seizure was the commonest information revealed. The main reason behind disclosure was better acceptance of the child followed by safety while main barrier was considering epilepsy as private grief. 92.8% felt their children were better accepted after disclosure. Conclusion: Disclosure practices have improved in parents of CWE in India and well-being and safety of the child has overridden the fear of stigma and discrimination. This could be the first major step to bring epilepsy out of the shadows at national and global levels.

Contributions of childhood peer victimization and/or maltreatment to young adult anxiety, depression, and suicidality: a cross-sectional study

BackgroundChildhood maltreatment and peer victimization are major risk factors for depression and suicidal behavior. Furthermore, childhood maltreatment increases the risk of peer victimization. Our objective was to distinguish between the contributions of parental maltreatment and peer victimization to the development of mental health problems in young adulthood. Specifically, we tested whether peer victimization alone or in combination with parental maltreatment before 18 years old was associated with anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts and behaviors at age 21 years.MethodsWe analyzed data collected from questionnaires administered in the i-Share (Internet-based Students’ Health ResearchEnterprise) study in France from February 2013 to September 2019 (N = 2271 participants). We performed multinomial and binary logistic regression analyses to assess the single and combined contributions of childhood peer victimization and parental maltreatment to anxiety, depression, and suicidality in adulthood.ResultsNearly one third of students (28.8%) reported at least one mental health problem; 29.8% reported peer victimization alone; 7.5% reported parental maltreatment alone; and 10.3% reported both parental maltreatment and victimization. In multivariate models, compared to participants that did not experience maltreatment or peer victimization, those that experienced peer victimization alone were more likely to report anxiety (adjusted odds ratio [aOR]: 1.90; 95% CI: 1.50–2.40), depression (aOR: 1.95; 95% CI: 1.46–2.60), or suicidal ideation, without (aOR: 1.62; 95% CI: 1.26–2.09) or with a suicide attempt (aOR: 2.70; 95% CI: 1.51–4.85). Similar associations were observed for participants that experienced maltreatment alone. Participants that experienced both maltreatment and peer victimization were at increased risk of depression (aOR: 2.63; 95% CI: 1.79–3.86) and suicidal ideation, with (aOR: 9.19; 95% CI: 4.98–16.92) and without a suicide attempt (aOR: 2.64; 95% CI: 1.86–3.76).ConclusionsSeparate and combined exposures to parental maltreatment and peer victimization in childhood or adolescence were associated with increased risks of anxiety, depression, and suicidal behaviors. Peer victimization appeared to play a specific role in mental health disorders that were not otherwise explained by polyvictimization. Currently, peer victimization is a frequent, but avoidable type of child abuse; therefore, these findings have implications for policies for preventing and dealing with peer victimization.

How to Fit In? Acculturation and Risk of Overweight and Obesity. Experiences of Australian Immigrant Mothers From South Asia and Their 8- to 11-Year-Old Children

This study of 14 Australian immigrant mothers from Bangladesh, India, and Pakistan and their 12 children aged 8 to 11 years aims to explore the interplay of cultural and social processes that might elevate the risk of obesity. Mothers and their children were asked in semi-structured, face-to-face interviews about changes in their diet and physical activities after immigration to Australia. Thematic analysis of these interviews showed a transformation in immigrant families’ diets and physical activities as they transitioned from their traditional lifestyles to an Australian pattern. Both mothers and their children recognized the problem—and causes—of obesity. However, different frames of reference—origin countries for mothers and Australian peers for children—resulted in generational disjuncture about healthy bodyweight and the strategies to achieve it. Mothers’ cultural values and high social status associated with overweight and obesity in origin countries led them to struggle to adapt to new health behaviors in Australia. In contrast, their children preferred to eat Australian foods and have high physical activities to fit in with their Australian peers. Children with higher body weights were commonly ridiculed and were unpopular among their peers. Our findings reveal that the social status of food and physical activity reflects cultural meanings from both origin and host countries, creating contradictions and tensions for immigrants that public health campaigns will need to help them navigate.

Examining Reciprocal Links between Parental Autonomy-Support and Children's Peer Preference in Mainland China.

The present study examined the longitudinal relations between child perceptions of parental autonomy-support and peer preference in mainland China. Participants were N = 758 children (50.8% boys; Mage = 10.78 years, SD = 1.03 at Wave 1; Mage = 11.72 years, SD = 1.11 at Wave 2; Mage = 12.65 years, SD = 0.95 at Wave 3) from elementary and middle schools in Shanghai, P.R. China. Children were followed over three years from Grades 4–6 to Grades 6–8. Each year, children reported their perceived maternal/paternal autonomy-support and peer preference (being well-liked among peers) was measured via peer nominations. Among the results, peer preference positively predicted later perceptions of maternal and paternal autonomy-supportive parenting, whereas autonomy-supportive parenting did not significantly predict later peer preference. Results are discussed in terms of the interactions between parental autonomy-supportive parenting and children’s peer relationships in Chinese culture.

Childhood Peer Victimization, Identity Diffusion and Disordered Eating Behaviors in Emerging Adults

Childhood peer victimization (CPV) has been associated with clinical and subclinical forms of disordered eating behaviors (DEBs). However, less is known about the mechanisms involved in this association, especially in emerging adulthood. The present study examined the relationship between harmfulness of the CPV experiences, identity diffusion and DEBs using Structural Equation Modeling. Emphasis was given in the investigation of the indirect effect of CPV harmfulness on DEBs through identity diffusion. Data from 414 emerging adults was collected via an online questionnaire. The analysis indicated significant direct effects of CPV harmfulness on both restrictive and binge-eating. More importantly, findings supported the indirect relationship between CPV harmfulness and binge-eating through identity diffusion. Results provide preliminary support for the role of CPV harmfulness and identity diffusion as contributing factors in the development of DEBs in emerging adults. Implications for future research are discussed.

‘Self’ (ziji), ‘others’ (taren) and ‘collective’ (jiti): Friendships at school embedded with China's Confucian–collectivist sociocultural values

AbstractFriendship, an important type of interpersonal relationship, has been studied in various disciplines. When studying friendship, sociologists highlight the importance of placing friendships in context to build up a connection between friendship, a type of interpersonal relationship between individuals, and the surrounding social and cultural environment. In sociological studies of friendship, children's friendships in the Chinese context have not been explored thoroughly. To contribute to closing this gap, this article places children's peer friendships in a rural Chinese primary boarding school context and focuses on exploring Chinese Confucian–collectivist sociocultural values that emerged in these children's daily practices of peer friendships.

“They would make you feel stupid” - Ability grouping, Children’s friendships and psychosocial Wellbeing in Irish primary school

Increasing international attention on wellbeing places the onus on education systems to support children's positive psychosocial development. Despite broad and rich literature highlighting the limitations of implementing ability grouping as pedagogy and its impact on how children ‘do’ and ‘feel’ learning in school, this practice still persists in systems across the OECD. This Irish study draws on qualitative and sociometric data from 3 case study schools with 100 children. It explores how teachers cast an ‘invisible hand’ over children's peer networks, shaping friendships and patterns of inclusion/exclusion within the classroom. It builds on current literature in the field exploring how peer interaction is influenced by ability group assignment using network analysis. Findings also reveal the psychosocial impact of these dynamics, with children assigned to lower ability groups most impacted by lower social status, exclusion from peers and increased experience of bullying. These experiences evoked feelings of disengagement, anger and isolation.

A granular perspective on inclusion: Objectively measured interactions of preschoolers with and without autism.

Children's preschool experiences have consequences for development. However, it is not clear how children's real-time interactions with peers affect their language development; nor is it clear whether these processes differ between children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and two other groups of children, those with general developmental delays (DD) and typically developing (TD) children. We used objective measures of movement and vocalizations to quantify children's real-time dyadic vocal interactions and quantify classroom social networks. Participants included 56 preschoolers (22 female; M =50.14 months) in five inclusive classrooms for children with ASD or DD and their TD peers. Each class was observed monthly on two to five occasions. Overall, children vocalized more to peers who had vocalized more to them in the previous observation. These dyadic vocalization patterns were associated with group differences in social network analyses. Modularity, the cohesiveness of group ties, was lower among children with ASD than it was among TD children or children with DD. Individually, children with ASD exhibited lower total levels of vocalizations with peers (lower degree centrality) than TD children and children with DD. In an exploratory analysis with a subset of the participants, children's degree centrality was strongly associated with their end-of-year assessed language abilities, even when accounting for mean differences between groups. Findings highlight the impact peers and social networks play in real-time language use and in the developing language abilities of children with ASD in inclusion classrooms. LAY SUMMARY: This study objectively measured associations between children's peer vocal interactions and assessed language abilities in inclusion classrooms for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their peers. All children benefited from peers talking to them, but children with ASD were less central to classroom speech networks than were typically developing children. Children's centrality to social speech networks, regardless of ASD status, was associated with assessed language abilities.

Hearing Screening in Pediatric Primary Care.

1. Jordan K. Yoeli, MD*,† 2. Daniel Nicklas, MD*,† 1. *Children’s Hospital Colorado, Aurora, CO 2. †University of Colorado, Aurora, CO Screening for congenital and acquired deafness and hearing loss (HL) represents a significant responsibility for clinicians in all newborn units and medical homes. Approximately 1 to 3 infants of 1,000 born in a well infant nursery setting and 2 to 4 of 100 born in a NICU have significant bilateral HL. Outcomes in various developmental domains depend on the early recognition and subsequent intervention for HL. Developmental delay is present in 30% to 40% of children with HL; the goal of hearing screening (HS) and prompt intervention is to optimize a child’s language acquisition, cognitive development, literacy, social-emotional maturity and academic success. This article reviews the most up-to-date standards and practices to aid medical providers in the early detection and intervention for pediatric HL. In the United States, universal screening begins in the neonatal period. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Joint Commission on Infant Hearing (JCIH), all infants should be screened for congenital HL before 1 month of age. Most infants are screened in nursery or NICU settings, except for those born outside of a medical facility. For the latter population or for infants with no documented HS, screening should be completed by the medical home before 1 month of age. In a well nursery setting, most HSs are performed by otoacoustic emission (OAE) testing. During an OAE screen, a sensitive microphone in the ear canal records the cochlear responses (“acoustic emissions”) to acoustic stimuli, thereby testing the peripheral auditory system from the outer/middle ear (conduction zones) to the cochlear outer hair cells (sensory organ). A “pass” indicates that hearing is functional to the level of …

Parent and Peer Emotion Responsivity Styles: An Extension of Gottman's Emotion Socialization Parenting Typologies.

This theoretical paper introduces six emotion socialization typologies that can be used for designating emotion responsivity styles of parents and peers of children in middle childhood, referred to as Parent and Peer Emotion Responsivity Styles (PPERS). This typology draws on theoretical foundations of meta-emotion and emotion socialization. These typologies are compliment with and extend Gottman’s emotion-based parenting styles, as they are organized generally by whether the response is more positive or more negative and whether the response is more emotionally constructive or destructive, but extend the four styles to include whether the parent or peer targets the emotion directly when responding to a child’s emotions, or whether they target the emotion-related behavior. On the positive end, there is the Emotion Constructive style, which targets the child’s emotions directly. The other two positive styles include Emotion Responsive and Emotion Acceptive, which target the child’s emotional behaviors with higher or lower levels of activity. On the negative side, there is the Emotion Destructive style which is employed to target the emotion itself, while the Emotion Punitive and Emotion Dismissive styles target the child’s emotion-related behavior with varying levels of activity. Implications for the development and study of these theoretical typologies are discussed.

Maternal consumption of soy and isoflavones during pregnancy and risk of childhood behavioural problems: the Kyushu Okinawa Maternal and Child Health Study

It is uncertain whether the effects of prenatal exposure to isoflavones on childhood behaviour are beneficial or detrimental. This prebirth cohort study investigated the associations between maternal consumption of soy products and isoflavones during pregnancy and behavioural problems in Japanese children aged 5 years. Subjects were 1199 mother–child pairs. Emotional problems, conduct problems, hyperactivity problems, peer problems and low prosocial behaviour were assessed using the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. Maternal total soy product consumption during pregnancy was independently inversely associated with childhood hyperactivity and peer problems. Maternal fermented soybean consumption during pregnancy was independently inversely associated with childhood hyperactivity problems. Maternal isoflavone consumption during pregnancy was independently inversely related to childhood hyperactivity problems. Maternal consumption of total soy products, fermented soybean and isoflavones during pregnancy may be protective against hyperactivity problems in Japanese children. Also, maternal total soy product consumption during pregnancy may be preventive against childhood peer problems.

Young chinese children's remote peer interactions and social competence development during the COVID-19 pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way young children engage in peer communication. The aim of this study was to explore how young children engaged in peer interaction remotely by examining young children's multimodal interactions during the pandemic. Visual and audio data posted to Douyin (China's most popular live-streaming site) between January 23, 2020 and May 6, 2020 were collected and analyzed. Mediated discourse analysis was used to explore young children's remote interactions as captured on video recordings. Results support the critical role of play materials and tangible tools in mediating young children's peer interactions and participation in remote environments.

Effect of family-related adverse childhood experiences on self-rated health in childhood and adulthood——childhood friendships as moderator

Although many existing studies have shown that family-related adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) have a negative effect on individual health, few studies have examined the role of childhood friendships in the relationship between ACEs and health outcomes. The present study used ordered logistic regression analyze the data from the China Health and Retirement Longitudinal Study (CHARLS) conducted in 2014, which is a national representative survey, to investigate the impact of family-related ACEs on self-rated health in childhood and adulthood and the moderating effects of childhood friendships. We found that respondents whose ACEs included physical and emotional neglect, parental physical illness, parental mental illness, family economic hardship, experience of starvation, lived in insecure neighborhood, and lived in unclean community, had a lower self-rated health in childhood and adulthood than those without ACEs. Peer relationship moderates the impact of family-related ACEs—namely, family economic hardship and parental physical illness—on health outcomes, and the increase of peer relationship can reduce adverse effects. Our findings suggest that family-related ACEs are not only related to health in the early life, but also to health outcomes in adulthood. Childhood friendships can reduce the adverse effects of ACEs on health outcomes throughout an individual's life course. Therefore, it is necessary to actively cultivate children's peer relationship networks and improve the quality of childhood friendship.

ДИАГНОСТИКА РАЗВИТИЯ ОБЩЕНИЯ СО ВЗРОСЛЫМИ И СВЕРСТНИКАМИ У ДОШКОЛЬНИКОВ С УМСТВЕННОЙ ОТСТАЛОСТЬЮ

В статье представлены результаты теоретико-экспериментального изучения коммуникативного развития умственно отсталых дошкольников, обоснованы психологические условия его оптимизации. В исследовании реализован субъектно-деятельностный подход к изучению становления ребенка дошкольного возраста в качестве субъекта коммуникативного взаимодействия. В качестве ключевых в общении этих детей с окружающими, в реализации их речевой коммуникации рассматриваются качественные характеристики потребностно-мотивационной сферы коммуникативной деятельности дошкольников с умственной отсталостью. В статье отражены результаты сравнительного исследования развития общения со взрослыми и сверстниками детей старшего дошкольного возраста с легкой степенью умственной отсталости и их нормально развивающихся сверстников. Экспериментальные данные свидетельствуют о несформированности у старших умственно отсталых дошкольников мотивационно-потребностной сферы общения, речевых средств, низком уровне их активности и инициативности в общении, доминировании пассивной позиции, достаточно индифферентном отношении к партнеру. В общении и со взрослыми, и со сверстниками у этих детей преобладали ситуативные констатирующие высказывания, потребность в практическом взаимодействии, вербальных контактах, просьбы о помощи. В качестве психологических условий оптимизации коммуникативного развития дошкольников с умственной отсталостью авторами рассматривается расширение сферы коммуникативных отношений таких детей с субъектами социального пространства, усложнение коммуникативных задач и обогащение содержания их контактов, расширение спектра вербальных и невербальных средств в общении. The article presents the results of a theoretical and experimental investigation of communication development in preschool children with mental retardation. It also describes the psychological conditions required to develop and improve communication abilities. The research employs subject-activity approach to the investigation of preschool children communication development. The article maintains that quality characteristics of mentally retarded preschool children’s motivation and needs are the key factors in these children’s interaction with their environment. The article describes the results of a comparative research of the development of skills of communication with adults and peers in preschool children with mild mental retardation and their normotypical peers. The experimental data show that senior preschool children with mental retardation have underdeveloped motivation and needs for communication. They do not have required speech strategies, they do not show initiative, prefer to be passive and placid, are not interested in their communication partners. Communicating with their peers and adults, preschool children with mental retardation tend to use words and phrases that describe current situations, participate in practical interaction, interact verbally, ask for help. The authors maintain that the communicative development of preschool children with mental retardation can be enhanced through children’s communication with other members of community, through gradual elaboration of communicative tasks, through various verbal and non-verbal means of communication.