Abstract
The purpose of the present study was to examine whether mother-child communication patterns vary as a function of the type of the task. Groups of learning disabled (LD=30) and normally achieving boys (NLD=30) were videotaped interacting with their mothers in two different tasks. The children were matched for age (8 to 11 year-olds) and for parent’s SES. The results indicated that the teaching task differentiated the groups more than did the story task. Academic character of the teaching task increased mothers’ task involvement in both groups. Mothers of the LD group showed, however, significantly more dominance and expressed less emotionality while teaching their child. Mothers’ interaction partly followed from their children’s behaviour on this task. The children with LD did not cooperate with their mothers and were not emotionally involved in the teaching task as highly as were the normally achieving children. Corresponding features of interaction were not found for the LD group in the story task. Consistency of children’s communication across the tasks was significant in the LD group. The normally achieving boys were more responsive to changes in task conditions showing different behavior as a function of task.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Aragona, J., & Eyberg, S. (1981). Neglected children: Mothers’ report of child behavior problems and observed verbal behavior.Child Development, 52, 596–602.
Bryan, T., Donahue, M., Pearl, R., & Herzog, A. (1984). Conversational interactions between mothers and learning disabled or nondisabled children during a problem solving task.Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 49, 64–71.
Campbell, S. (1973). Mother-child interaction in reflective, impulsive, and hyperactive children.Developmental Psychology, 8, 341–349.
DeRenzi, E., & Faglioni, P. (1978). Development of a shortened version of the Token Test.Cortex, 14, 41–49.
Diaz, R., Neal, C., & Vachio, A. (1991). Maternal teaching in the zone of proximal development: A comparison of low- and high-risk dyads.Merrill-Palmer Quarterly, 1, 83–107.
Ditton, P., Green, R., & Singer, M. (1987). Communication deviances: A comparison between parents of learning-disabled and normally achieving students.Family Process, 26, 75–87.
Donahue, M., Pearl, R., & Bryan, T. (1980). Learning disabled children’s conversational competence: response to inadequate messages.Applied Psycholinguistics, 1, 387–403.
Doyles, D., Cartelli, L., & Doster, J. (1976). Comparison of patterns of mother-child interaction.Journal of Learning Disabilities, 9, 371–375.
Dunham, P., & Dunham, F. (1990). Effects of mothers-infant social interactions on infants’ subsequent contingency task performance.Child Development, 61, 785–793.
Dunn, L., & Dunn, C. (1981).Peabody picture vocabulary test-Revised. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance Service.
Green, R.-J. (1989). “Learning to learn” and the family system: New perspectives on underachievement and learning disorders.Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 15, 187–203.
Green, R-J. (1990). Family communication and children’s learning disabilities: Evidence for Cole’s theory of interactivity.Journal of Learning Disabilities, 23, 145–148.
Hammill, D., Leigh, J., McNutt, G., & Larsen, S. (1981). A new definition of learning disabilities.Learning Disability Quarterly, 4, 336–342.
Kaplan, E., Goodglass, H., & Weintraub, S. (1983).The Boston Naming Test (2nd ed.), Philadelphia: Lea & Febiger.
Kistner, J., & Torgesen, J. (1987). Motivational and cognitive aspects of learning disabilities. In A. Kazdin & B. Lahey (Eds.),Advances in clinical child psychology (pp. 289–333). New York: Plenum Press.
Mash, E., & Mercer, B. (1979). A comparison of the behavior of deviant and non-deviant boys while playing alone and interacting with a sibling.Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 20, 197–207.
McGillicuddy-DeLisi, B. (1992). Correlates of parental teaching strategies in families of children evidencing normal and atypical development.Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 13, 215–234.
Närhi, V., & Ahonen, T. (1992). How does clinical diagnosis of LD subtypes match with psychometric test evidence: a research plan.NMI-Bulletin, 2, 24–25.
Pellegrini, A., Brody, G., & Sigel, I. (1985). Parents’ teaching strategies with their children: The effects of parental and child status variables.Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 6, 509–521.
Rasku-Puttonen, H., Lyytinen, P., & Vilkman, E. (1991). Communication between mothers and their normal or developmentally dysphasic children in experimental sessions.Scandinavian Journal of Logopedics and Phoniatrics, 16, 17–24.
Rasku-Puttonen, H., Lyytinen, P., Ahonen, T., Poikkeus, A.-M., & Laakso, M.-L. (1994). Communication deviances and clarity among the mothers of normally achieving and learning disabled boys.Family Process, 33, 11–20.
Raven, J. (1956).Colored Progressive Matrices Sets A, Ab, B. London: Lewis.
Rogoff, B., Ellis, S., & Gardner, W. (1984). Adjustment of adult-child instruction according to child’s age task.Developmental Psychology, 20, 193–199.
Shneidman, E. (1952).Manual for the Make a Picture Story Method. Projective Techniques Monographs, 2. The Society for Personality Assessment.
Sigel, I., Stinson, E., & Flaugher, J. (1991). Socialization of representational competency in the family: The distancing paradigm. In L. Okagaki & R. Sternberg (Eds.),Directors of development. Influences on the development of children’s thinking (pp. 121–144). New York: Plenum.
Steinert, Y., Campbell, S., & Kiely, M. (1981). A comparison of maternal and remedial teacher teaching styles with good and poor readers.Journal of Learning Disabilities, 14, 38–42.
Tollison, P., Palmer, D., & Stowe, M. (1987). Mothers’ expectations, interactions, and achievement attributions for their learning disabled or normally achieving sons.The Journal of Special Education, 21, 83–92.
Wertsch, J., & Rogoff, B. (1984). Editors’ notes. In B. Rogoff & J. Wertsch, (Eds.),Children’s learning in the “zone of proximal development”: New directions for child development (pp. 1–6). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Wolf, M. (1986). Rapid alternating stimulus (R.A.S.) naming in the developmental, dyslexias: A developmental, process-differentiated account of rate deficits.Brain and Language, 27, 360–379.
Worden, P., Kee, D., & Ingle, M. (1987) Parental teaching strategies with preschoolers: A comparison of mothers and fathers within different alphabet tasks.Contemporary Educational Psychology, 12, 95–109.
Zentall, S. (1985). A context for hyperactivity. In K. Gadow (Ed.),Advances in learning and behavioral disabilities (Vol. 4, pp. 273–343). Greenwitch: Jai Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Lyytinen, P., Rasku-Puttonen, H., Ahonen, T. et al. Task-related variation in communication of mothers and their sons with learning disability. Eur J Psychol Educ 10, 3 (1995). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172791
Received:
Revised:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172791