The consistency of individual maternal conversational styles was asses
sed across two different contexts: tree-play and conversations about p
ast events. Twenty-two White, middle-class mother-child pairs particip
ated when the children were 40 months old. During separate sessions, m
others played with their children using a provided toy and elicited th
eir children's memories of shared past experiences. Cluster analyses r
evealed two distinct maternal styles in free-play and two comparable m
aternal styles of talking about the past. Most important, individual m
others' styles were found to vary across the different contexts. The f
indings suggest that mother-child dyads must be observed in multiple c
ontexts to adequately characterize relations between maternal styles a
nd children's language and narrative development. Further implications
of maternal styles as reflecting context-sensitive strategies are dis
cussed.