Stability and change of maternal speech to Italian infants from 7 to 21 months of age: a longitudinal study of its influence on early stages of language acquisition

Abstract

Fourteen Italian infants were observed during play-interaction with their mothers in six laboratory sessions taking place about every two months from 7 to 21 months of age. They were video- recorded and transcribed to obtain data on the frequency of mothers' verbal behaviour and its pragmatic and semantic charac teristics. Infants' productions were also classified as babbling, words or multi-word utterances. Analyses were performed to assess: (a) variations in characteristics of maternal speech with infants' increasing age; (b) stability of individual characteristics of mothers' verbal behaviour; (c) the contribution of children's individual characteristics and mothers' interactive style to language acquisition at 12 and 21 months. Results revealed that both infants' and mothers' individual characteristics make a relevant contribution to the first steps of language acquisition. However, after the first year of age, infants' individual differences are more responsible for the outcomes of the second year.