MOTHERS REFERENTIAL COMMUNICATION WITH PRESCHOOLERS - EFFECTS OF CHILDRENS SYNTAX AND MOTHERS BELIEFS

This study examined the effects of children's syntactic ability and mo thers' beliefs about child development on mothers' questioning strateg ies on a referential communication task with preterm (N = 19) or full- term (N = 19) 4 1/2-year-olds. Children's syntactic skills were relate d to the dyads' communicative success and the frequency of mothers' qu estions. However, mothers' beliefs about the power of the environment to effect positive developmental outcomes, and their optimism about th eir child's future school performance predicted mothers' questioning s trategies above and beyond the effects of the child's language skills. These influences operated similarly in the preterm and full-term grou ps. These findings suggest that mothers' beliefs about child developme nt are important variables in the study of communicative input to chil dren.