MOTHERS KNOWLEDGE ABOUT CHILDRENS PLAY AND LANGUAGE-DEVELOPMENT - SHORT-TERM STABILITY AND INTERRELATIONS

Sixty-four mothers of children ranging in age from 6 to 58 months were asked to determine, for pairings of play and language items, which it em was more advanced developmentally. This procedure was repeated with in 2 weeks. In general, mothers' orderings of play and language items matched those established in the developmental Literature and were sta ble over the short term. Mothers' knowledge about language development was stronger than and unrelated to their knowledge about play, sugges ting that maternal knowledge about developmental domains is differenti ated and specific. Finally, mothers' judgments about the developmental milestones depended on their children's current developmental stage: Mothers were less accurate at estimating the timing of milestones that their children had mastered many months earlier, supporting the view that mothers' knowledge is informed by their children's recent rather than past achievements in specific areas.