Maternal Responsivity Predicts the Prelinguistic Communication Intervention That Facilitates Generalized Intentional Communication

Family systems theory posits that the relative effectiveness of early interventions will vary depending on various aspects of the family. This study tested whether maternal responsivity would predict the extent to which Prelinguistic Milieu Teaching (PMT) facilitated generalized intentional communication better than a contrast treatment that was conducted in a small group by a responsive adult (i.e., Responsive Small Group, RSG). Fifty-eight children with developmental disabilities in the prelinguistic communication period of development were randomly assigned to one of the two staff-implemented treatment groups. Thirty were assigned to RSG; 28 were assigned to PMT. Mothers were kept naive to the intervention methods, hypotheses, and measures. In families with mothers who responded to a high percentage of the children's communication acts at the pre-treatment period, the children in the PMT group used more frequent intentional communication in post-treatment generalization sessions with a trainer and mothers than did children in the RSG group. In the families with mothers who responded to fewer than 39% of their children's communication acts, children in the RSG intervention used more frequent intentional communication in post-treatment generalization sessions with the mothers than did children in the PMT intervention. Other family variables and no child variables that we measured could account for these findings.

KEY WORDS: mother-child interaction, prelinguistic communication, intervention, children with developmental disabilities, systems theory

Submitted on May 5, 1997
Accepted on April 8, 1998

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