Intentional communication elicits language-facilitating maternal responsesin dyads with children who have developmental disabilities

An experimental test of whether intentional communication elicits maternal responses purported to facilitate language development is presented. Fifty- eight prelinguistic children with disabilities and their mothers participat ed. Children were randomly assigned to two staff-implemented treatments tha t were designed to experimentally increase intentional communication abilit y. We predicted that treatment effects on maternal responses would vary by maternal education level and maternal responsive interaction style at the p retreatment period. We predicted any treatment effect on maternal responses would be mediated by posttreatment intentional communication. Results indi cated that treatment effects on maternal responses varied by pretreatment m aternal education level. A pattern of results also supports the conclusion that posttreatment intentional communication to mother was, at least in par t, responsible for the effect on posttreatment maternal responses.