Ps. Klein et S. Alony, IMMEDIATE AND SUSTAINED EFFECTS OF MATERNAL MEDIATING BEHAVIORS ON YOUNG-CHILDREN, Journal of early intervention, 17(2), 1993, pp. 177-193
Sixty-eight low-SES Israeli women and their 4-year-old children partic
ipated in a follow-up study of the impact of training mothers to optim
ize their infants' development through theory-driven mediational strat
egies. Mother-and-infant pairs were randomly divided into two groups,
an experimental group (n = 48) and a control group (n = 20). The exper
imental-group mothers had been instructed to improve the quality of th
eir mediation through an increase in frequency of the following five b
asic variables assessed as criteria of quality of maternal mediation:
(a) focusing (intentional focusing of attention), (b) affecting (expre
ssion of affect and excitement), (c) expanding (explaining or associat
ing with experiences beyond the immediate context), (d) encouraging (p
raising or encouraging), and (e) regulating (controlling actions in fo
rm, time, and space or planning and sequencing). The control group was
given information on milestones in early development and on the favor
able conditions for it. The effects of these interventions on the moth
ers and children were assessed 1 and 3 years following the interventio
n. An increase in maternal mediation behaviors following the intervent
ion was found in the experimental group and remained significant at th
e 3-year follow-up; children in the experimental group spontaneously n
amed more things, expressed more excitement, asked more questions, and
showed more rewarding behavior towards their mothers. These children
had higher scores on the PPVT, and scored higher on verbal abstract re
asoning tasks that did the control group children. Maternal mediation
behaviors were found to be significantly related to specific children'
s behaviors and cognitive outcome measures.