Semantic Contingency of Maternal Verbal Input Directed at Very Preterm and Full-Term Children.

Several studies have testified to the importance of a responsive linguistic input for children's language acquisition and development. In particular, maternal use of expansions, imitations, interpretations, and labels has been shown to promote both children's language comprehension and production. From this perspective, the present study examined the semantically contingent linguistic input addressed to very preterm children's comparing it to that directed to full-term children observed during a semi-structured play session when the children were 24 months of age. The relationships between maternal contingent utterances and children's communicative repertoires were also investigated. The main results showed that mothers of full-term children produced a higher proportion of semantically contingent utterances than those of very preterm children; moreover, this variable was associated with children's more advanced communicative-linguistic outcomes. Overall, this study supports the interdependence between mothers' use of certain linguistic strategies and children's communicative-linguistic repertoire, extending this evidence to children born very preterm and suggesting the importance of considering the semantic contingency aspect of child-directed speech to support the communicative and linguistic development of these children.

Prosocial Behavior in Preschoolers: Effects of Early Socialization Experiences With Peers.

Over the last decades, many studies had focused on the psychological outcomes of children who have received early socialization outside of the family context, highlighting that the daycare experience can both positively and negatively influence the child's social-emotional development. Despite the number of studies conducted, there is a lack of observational research on this topic. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the early daycare experience can influence the prosocial behaviors that children exhibit during free-play social interactions with peers, focusing on their quantity and quality. In addition, the associations between the enactment of prosocial behaviors and social-emotional and behavioral competence were investigated. 160 preschoolers, 77 of whom had previously attended daycare, participated in the study and were focally observed during two free play sessions with peers. Each prosocial behavior was identified and subsequently classified using a coding scheme designed to consider the self-initiated or required origin of prosocial actions and their underlying motive. Emotion comprehension was measured using a standardized test, while social-emotional and behavioral competence was assessed using a questionnaire filled out by teachers. The main findings showed that children who had attended daycare had higher anger and aggression scores than those who had not, who, in turn, were rated by their teachers as having more internalizing behaviors. These characteristics seemed to account for the differences found in the tendency to act prosocial acts in response to a peer's request, which was lower in children who had a previous daycare experience. Moreover, early socialization outside of the family context appeared to foster the comprehension of others' intent to achieve emotional or instrumental personal goals and, at the same time, to reduce conventional/affiliative prosocial acts. Overall, this study suggested that the incidental effects of daycare on prosocial behavior might be canceled due to the peculiar social-emotional and behavioral characteristics of the two groups of children.

Can You Understand Your Child? Reliability and Validity of a Parent Questionnaire: The Intelligibility in Context Scale: Italian.

INTRODUCTION: The Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) is a parent-report scale by which parents can rate their child's functional speech intelligibility according to seven different communicative partners. Translations, linguistic adaptations, and psychometric and norming data for ICS have been achieved in different languages. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the psychometric properties of the Italian version of the ICS (ICS-I) in terms of internal consistency, test-retest reliability, criterion validity (correlation with speech measures), and construct validity, and to investigate potential differences between mothers' and fathers' subjective ratings in ICS-I. METHODS: Italian-speaking children aged 3.0-5.11 years (n = 364), without major developmental impairment, were recruited in kindergartens. All children were independently rated by their mothers (ICS-Im) and fathers (ICS-If). A subsample of parents (n = 127) rated ICS-I twice after 3 weeks (test-retest reliability). Children were administered a naming and a word repetition task, by which speech measures were calculated: percentage of phonemes correct (PPC), percentage of consonants correct (PCC), and percentage of vowels correct (PVC). RESULTS: High internal consistency (α = 0.92) and good test-retest reliability (rs = 0.78) were found. A high (r > 0.67) correlation between the ICS-I total scores and single-item scores was found (construct validity), except for parental perception in ICS-Im and ICS-If. Moderate correlations (rs > 0.38) between the ICS-I and the PPC and PCC tasks suggested adequate criterion validity. Mothers' and fathers' ratings showed an appropriate agreement in the items acquaintances and teachers, but overall parent ratings were significantly different, with higher mean scores in ICS-Im (median = 4.57) than in ICS-If (median = 4.46), Z = -2.852, p < 0.01. CONCLUSIONS: As for other previous international studies, ICS-I presents good psychometric properties, but some differences in mothers' and fathers' scores suggest a potential parental influence in rating a child's intelligibility. Findings support cross-linguistic research, and further investigation could promote the application of ICS-I as an outcome measure in children with speech sound disorders.

Mind-mindedness and parenting stress in mothers of preterm and full-term infants: The moderating role of perceived social support.

The goal of this study was to examine the effects of preterm birth and maternal childbirth-related posttraumatic stress and parenting stress on maternal mind-mindedness (MM). The study also investigated the effects of perceived social support on parenting stress and MM. Sixty-five preterm (N = 32) and full-term (N = 33) mother-infant dyads were observed at 6 months. Measures of maternal MM were obtained from observations of mother-infant interaction. Mothers also provided ratings of their posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, parenting stress, and perceived social support via an online survey. Experiencing a preterm birth did not affect mothers' use of mental state descriptors during mother-infant interaction. Neither childbirth-related posttraumatic stress nor parenting stress directly affected maternal ability to comment on the child's mental states appropriately. However, at medium and high levels of perceived social support, a negative association between parenting stress and MM was observed. Maternal perception of being emotionally supported by significant others promoted MM in mothers showing low or mild levels of parenting stress, but not in mothers experiencing high stress in parenting their infants. Results suggest that a proclivity to MM might be affected by the interaction between parenting stress and social support, rather than by childbirth-related variables, such as prematurity.

El propósito de este estudio fue examinar los efectos del nacimiento prematuro y el estrés materno postraumático relacionado con dar a luz, y el estrés de la crianza sobre la disposición de la mente (MM). El estudio también investigó los efectos que la percepción del apoyo social tiene en el estrés de la crianza y la disposición de la mente. Se observaron 65 díadas de madre-infantes prematuros (N = 32) y de gestación completa (N = 33) a los 6 meses. Las medidas de la disposición mental materna se obtuvieron de observaciones de la interacción madre-infante. Las madres también suministraron los puntajes de sus síntomas de PTSD, el estrés de la crianza y la percepción del apoyo social por medio de una encuesta electrónica. El experimentar un nacimiento prematuro no afectó el uso por parte de las madres de los factores de descripción del estado mental durante la interacción madre-infante. Ni el estrés postraumático relacionado con el dar a luz ni el estrés de la crianza directamente afectaron la habilidad materna para comentar de manera apropiada sobre los estados mentales del niño. Sin embargo, al nivel medio y alto de la percepción de apoyo social, se observó una asociación negativa entre el estrés de crianza y la disposición de la mente. La percepción materna de contar con el apoyo emocional de su pareja promovió la disposición mental de las madres que mostraban bajos o leves niveles de estrés de crianza, aunque no así en aquellas madres que experimentaban un nivel alto de estrés en la crianza de sus infantes. Los resultados sugieren que una propensión a la disposición mental pudiera ser afectada por la interacción entre el estrés de crianza y el apoyo social, en vez de las variables relacionadas con el dar a luz, tal como el nacimiento prematuro.

Le but de cette étude était d'examiner les effets du stress posttraumatique lié à la naissance avant terme et à l'accouchement maternel et le stress de parentage sur l'Etat d'esprit/Orientation mentale (abrégé ici EE/OM). L'étude s'est aussi penchée sur les effets du soutien social perçu du stress de parentage et de l'EE/OM maternel. Soixante-cinq dyades mères-bébés nés avant terme (N = 32) et à plein terme (N = 33) ont été observées à 6 mois. Les mesures d'EE/FM maternel ont été obtenues d'observations de l'interaction mère-bébé. Les mères ont aussi offert des évaluations de leurs propres symptômes ESPT, du stress de parentage, et du soutien social perçu au travers d'un questionnaire en ligne. Le fait d'avoir fait l'expérience d'une naissance avant terme n'a pas affecté l'utilisation de descripteurs de santé mentale des mères durant l'interaction mère-bébé. Ni le stress posttraumatique lié à l'accouchement ni le stress de parentage n'ont affecté directement la capacité maternelle à commenter les états mentaux de l'enfant de manière appropriée. Cependant, à des niveaux moyens et élevés de soutien social perçu, une association négative entre le stress de parentage et l'EE/OM a été observée. La perception maternelle d'être soutenue émotionnellement par leurs partenaires a promu l'EE/FM chez les mères faisant preuve de niveaux bas ou peu élevés de stress de parentage, mais pas chez les mères faisant preuve de stress élevé dans le parentage de leurs bébés. Les résultats suggèrent qu'une tendance à l'EE/OM peut être affectée par l'interaction entre le stress de parentage et le soutien social, plutôt que par des variables liées à l'accouchement, comme la prématurité.

Mind-Mindedness and Parenting Stress: A Cross-Sectional Study in a Cohort of Mothers of 3-Month-Old Full-Term and Preterm Infants.

The preterm birth of a child is a sudden event that can disturb the overall family system and its functioning. Many studies have been conducted with the aim of exploring how and the degree to which this event affects the early mother-infant dyadic relationship and maternal well-being, with often mixed findings. The present study investigates the combined effect of preterm birth and parenting stress on mind-mindedness, a parenting dimension that captures how parents represent and treat their children as separate individuals with their own mental states and activities. A hundred and ten mothers and their three-month-old infants (preterm = 54; full-term = 56) participated in the study. Mind-mindedness was assessed by coding mothers' comments about infant's mental states during dyadic face-to-face interaction. Parenting stress was evaluated with the Parenting Stress Index Short Form questionnaire. Mothers of preterm infants reported similar levels of appropriate and non-attuned mind-related comments to mothers of full-term infants. The reported parenting stress levels were also comparable. Interestingly, only mothers of preterm infants who reported higher stress in parenting showed more non-attuned comments during the interaction. The results underline the need to address preterm birth as a complex event, going beyond group differences and considering its interplay with other risk or protective factors in shaping children's and parents' adjustments and well-being.

Normative data and construct validity of a cross-linguistic functional speech outcome, the Intelligibility in Context Scale: Italian (ICS-I).

OBJECTIVES: The Intelligibility in Context Scale (ICS) is a parent-report scale, world-wide translated and widely validated, by which parents can rate their child's functional speech intelligibility according to seven different communicative partners. The study aimed to report and discuss the normative data of the Italian version of ICS (ICS-I) in Italian-speaking preschool children, and to investigate whether the age influences the ICS-I scores (construct validity). Socio-economic status (SES) of the family were investigated and compared to parents' ratings on child's speech intelligibility. METHODS: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted. Italian-speaking children aged 3-6 years (n = 355; mean age = 56.06 months; SD = 9.8 months), without major developmental impairment, were recruited in kindergartens throughout a convenience sampling. Parents completed a self-report form on their family SES (educational level and employment status of fathers and mothers). Children were independently rated by their mothers (ICS-Im) and fathers (ICS-If). RESULTS: Results show that ICS normative data for the Italian preschool population (ICS-Im = 4.52; SD = 0.46; ICS-If = 4.47; SD = 0.49) are consistent with previous evidence found in other languages, suggesting that ICS could be a potential cross-linguistic tool to assess functional intelligibility. A statistically significant (p < 0.001) improvement in ICS-I score was found with increase of age (construct validity). No evidence of association (p > 0.05) with ICS-I was found for SES family. CONCLUSION: The study provides normative data of the functional intelligibility assessed by a subjective parental scale. As for other previous international studies, ICS-I normative data suggest that a preschool child without major impairment shows a high degree of speech intelligibility, even if minimal differences of intelligibility are reported for different communicative partners. The current findings support clinicians and researchers in implementing ICS-I in typical and also in atypical population with different SES background and promoting its application as a potential outcome measure in children with Speech Sound Disorders.

Vocal and gestural productions of 24-month-old children with sex chromosome trisomies.

BACKGROUND: Children with sex chromosome trisomies (SCT) frequently show problems in language development. However, a clear description of the communicative patterns of these children is still lacking. AIMS: To describe the first stages of language development in children with SCT in comparison with those in typically developing (TD) children. The purpose was to verify the existence of possible differences in communicative skills (in both vocal and gestural modality) and identify the presence of possible early predictors (i.e., low vocabulary size and low gesture production) of later language impairment in children with SCT. METHODS & PROCEDURES: Fifteen 24-month-old children with SCT (eight males with Klinefelter syndrome (KS) and seven females with triple X syndrome (TX)) and fifteen 24-month-old TD children (eight males and seven females) participated in the study. Their spontaneous communicative productions were assessed during a semi-structured play session in interaction with a parent. In addition, their vocabulary size was assessed using a parental report (the Italian version of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories). OUTCOMES & RESULTS: With regards to their vocabulary size, 60% of children with SCT (75% of children with KS and 43% of children with TX) were at risk for language impairments (i.e., they had a vocabulary size smaller than 50 words). In addition, TD children showed better lexical and syntactic skills than children with SCT in their spontaneous communicative productions. However, the production of communicative gestures was higher in children with SCT than in TD children. Boys with KS appeared to differ from TD males in more aspects of communication than girls with TX differed from TD females. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: The study showed the importance of early detection of language risk factors in children with SCT, while also considering the use of compensatory strategies (e.g., the use of communicative gestures).

Prosodic skills in children with Down syndrome and in typically developing children.

BACKGROUND: Many studies have analysed language development in children with Down syndrome to understand better the nature of their linguistic delays and the reason why these delays, particularly those in the morphosyntactic area, seem greater than their cognitive impairment. However, the prosodic characteristics of language development in children with Down syndrome have been scarcely investigated. AIMS: To analyse the prosodic skills of children with Down syndrome in the production of multi-word utterances. Data on the prosodic skills of these children were compared with data on typically developing children matched on developmental age and vocabulary size. Between-group differences and the relationships between prosodic and syntactic skills were investigated. METHODS & PROCEDURES: The participants were nine children with Down syndrome (who ranged in chronological age from 45 to 63 months and had a mean developmental age of 30 months) and 12 30-month-old typically developing children. The children in both groups had a vocabulary size of approximately 450 words. The children's spontaneous productions were recorded during observations of mother-child play sessions. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Data analyses showed that despite their morphosyntactic difficulties, children with Down syndrome were able to master some aspects of prosody in multi-word utterances. They were able to produce single intonation multi-word utterances on the same level as typically developing children. In addition, the intonation contour of their utterances was not negatively influenced by syntactic complexity, contrary to what occurred in typically developing children, although it has to be considered that the utterances produced by children with Down syndrome were less complex than those produced by children in the control group. However, children with Down syndrome appeared to be less able than typically developing children to use intonation to express the pragmatic interrogative function. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: The findings are discussed considering the effects of social experience on the utterance prosodic realization.

Gestural development and its relation to language acquisition in very preterm children.

This longitudinal study examined the development of communicative gesture in 16 preterm children and two groups of full term children at 12, 18 and 24 months of age. Children's spontaneous communicative gestures were analyzed during mother-child observation sessions. Preterm children's motor, mental and linguistic development were also measured. The development of gestural communication did not significantly differ between the groups except for the use of gesture-plus-word combinations at 18 and 24 months, when full term children produced significantly more combinations than preterm children. For preterm children, the production of pointing at 12 months was positively associated with lexical skills at 24 months as was the use of gestures-plus-word utterances at 18 months with morphosyntactic skills at 24 months. Our analyses also revealed a subgroup of preterm children characterized by a low birth-weight and mental scores who demonstrated an enduring increase in communicative gesture production over time. This profile could be associated with later delays in language acquisition.

Maternal speech to preterm infants during the first 2 years of life: stability and change.

BACKGROUND: Studies on typical language development documented that mothers fine-tune their verbal input to children's advancing skills and development. Although premature birth has often been associated with delays in communicative and language development, studies investigating maternal language addressed to these children are still rare. AIMS: The principal aim of this longitudinal study was to investigate the maternal speech directed at very preterm children by examining its changes across time and the stability of maternal individual styles. METHODS & PROCEDURES: A sample of 16 mother-preterm infant dyads participated in semi-structured play sessions when children were 6, 12, 18 and 24 months of corrected age. Maternal speech directed at the children was analysed in terms of lexical and syntactical complexity as well as verbal productivity. Also children's motor, cognitive and communicative skills were assessed. OUTCOMES & RESULTS: Results highlight an overall increase in the lexical and syntactical complexity and in the amount of maternal speech across the first years of life. At the same time, individual maternal communicative styles seem stable as infants grow older, even if between 12 and 18 months all the indices' predictive values decrease, indicating a noteworthy modification in individual maternal styles. Furthermore, between 12 and 18 months predictive relationships between children's motor and vocal skills and maternal changes in input were found. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS: Verbal input addressed to children born preterm during the first 2 years of life does not seem to differ considerably from the language usually used with full-term infants. Nevertheless, maternal verbal adjustments seem to be predicted by earlier infant achievements in vocal and motor development. This suggests that infants' motor skill maturation may function as a major signal for mothers of preterm babies to adjust aspects of their linguistic interactive style.

Characteristics of phonological development as a risk factor for language development in Italian-speaking pre-term children: A longitudinal study.

This study analysed the early linguistic development of Italian pre-term children. Samples of spontaneous pre-linguistic and verbal production were recorded at 12 and 18 months of age from two groups of children: 24 pre-term children and 15 full-term children. The Italian version of the MacArthur-Bates Questionnaire was administered at 24 months of age. Comparisons between these two groups reveal differences in many aspects of phonetic and phonological development, such as consonantal inventory at 12 and 18 months of age and syllabic babbling complexity at 18 months of age. Results evidenced that birth weight was related with phonological skills exhibited at 18 months of age, and these skills in turn are related with vocabulary size at 24 months of age. Data are discussed within a theoretical framework that hypothesizes that early phonetic abilities have long-lasting effects on the process of language acquisition.