SPECIFICITY IN MOTHER TODDLER LANGUAGE PLAY RELATIONS ACROSS THE 2ND YEAR

Relations among specific aspects of language (comprehension and produc tion, semantics and utterance length) and relations between language a nd symbolic play were evaluated when children were 13 and 20 months of age. The contributions of maternal stimulation to toddler performance and whether associations among toddler abilities might be explained b y maternal behaviors were also examined. Although measures of toddler language covaried, language-play associations in toddlers were specifi c to semantic aspects of language. Associations between mother and tod dler behaviors emerged and tended to be specific: Maternal language re lated to toddler language, and maternal play related to toddler play. Moreover, relations among toddler abilities maintained after maternal influences were partialed. The multidimensional structure of language and specificities in language-play associations were discussed with re ference to models of early representational development.