An Intervention Focused on Maternal Sensitivity Enhanced Low-Income Mothers’ Verbal Responsiveness

• In Event: Poster Session 06
  In Poster Session: PS 06 Topic - Prevention and Interventions

Abstract

Mothers' prompt responsiveness to infant behaviors is a defining feature of the broader construct of maternal sensitivity. In particular, verbal responsiveness refers to child-directed speech that follows and aligns with child behaviors, such as when a mother names or describes an object of the infant's attention, imitates or expands on a child's vocalization, affirms a child's actions, and so forth. Mothers who coordinate their verbal and manual contingent behaviors by handling and talking about objects of infant interest may extend the duration of infants' attention toward the jointly shared objects, enhancing opportunities for infants to learn language. Interventions on prompt responsiveness find effects on infants' language skills. What is missing from prior work is examining whether interventions aimed at enhancing maternal sensitivity can show an effect on mothers' verbal responsiveness specifically. The current study is part of a research program that examined the impact of the Maternal Sensitivity Program (MSP), a home visiting manualized intervention that relies on video feedback and live modeling. A randomized controlled trial on MSP impact showed that mothers in the intervention group interpreted the meaning of their infants' behavior more often, asked infants more questions, and were less intrusive than comparisons at posttest. This study was designed to examine the impact of MSP, specifically on maternal verbal responsiveness. Forty-three mothers from low-income, Brazilian homes, and their 3-month old infants were assigned to intervention (n = 22) and comparison (n = 21) groups. The intervention spanned eight home visits, during which mothers were trained to acknowledge and respond to their infants' behaviors. Maternal verbal responsiveness was assessed during dyadic free play when infants were 11 and 18 months old. The four initial minutes of each free-play session were sequentially coded for infants' communicative and exploratory behaviors and mothers' contingent unimodal and multimodal verbal responsiveness and redirection in 60 intervals of 4 seconds each. Using GSEQ, we compared the conditional probabilities of sequences in which mothers promptly followed infants' behaviors with verbal unimodal or multimodal responsiveness (Table 1). Maternal mental health was covaried in analyses because of its documented association with maternal sensitivity. Intervention effects were found for maternal multimodal verbal responsiveness to infant behavior (F = 6.82; β = 0.06; r = 0.25; p < 0.01). The effects on unimodal verbal responsiveness were not significant. However, follow up analyses with ANCOVA showed that maternal unimodal verbal responsiveness at 11 months was significantly higher in the intervention group than in the comparison group (F= 4.11; β = 0.07; p = 0.05, ω² = 0.30). Infants’ communicative behaviors were also impacted by the intervention (F = 4.05; β = 0.04; r = 0.27; p = 0.05). Figures 1a-c display comparisons of infant communicative behaviors, maternal unimodal verbal responsiveness, and maternal multimodal verbal responsiveness as a function of group and follow-up time points. We discuss results in the intervention context, highlighting the strengths of video feedback and live modeling strategies. Interventions focused on maternal sensitivity may support maternal verbal responsiveness, thereby benefitting early childhood language development.

Authors

• Patricia Alvarenga, Federal University of Bahia
  Presenting Author

• Yana Kuchirko, Brooklyn College CUNY
  Non-Presenting Author

• Maria Ángeles Cerezo, University of Valencia
  Non-Presenting Author

• Euclides Jose de Mendonça Filho, McGill University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Catherine S Tamis-Lemonda, New York University
  Non-Presenting Author