CONVERSATIONAL INTERACTIONS OF MOTHERS AND THEIR PRESCHOOL-CHILDREN WHO HAD BEEN BORN PRETERM

This study examined the conversational interactions of mothers and the ir 4.5-year-old children, who had been born preterm, during a social p roblem-solving task asking each dyad to agree on the choice of a snack . Relative to comparison mothers, mothers of preterm children seemed t o approach the task as a vocabulary lesson; they produced less complex sentences and were more likely to name the snacks and to test their c hildren's knowledge of snack names. Comparison mothers were more likel y to focus on the social negotiation aspect of the task; by offering m ore opinions and reasons. Discussed is whether the conversational stra tegies of mothers of preterm children reflect appropriate ''fine-tunin g'' or a lag in adjusting to their children's emerging language skills because of a lingering ''prematurity stereotype.''