Maternal input to infants and toddlers after an early hospitalization: a longitudinal study

• Published in: Early child development and care 2022-08, Vol.192 (11), p.1816-1829
• Main Authors: Leitgel-Gille, Marluce, Le Normand, Marie-Thérèse, Caron, Caroline, Clouard, Chantal, Gosme, Christelle, Golse, Bernard, Ouss, Lisa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Age Differences; Anxiety; Attachment Behavior; Childcare; Children; Cognitive science; Correspondence analysis; Depression (Psychology); early hospitalization; follow-up; Foreign Countries; French; Hospitalization; Hospitalized Children; Infants; Interpersonal Communication; Language Usage; Longitudinal studies; maternal input; Mothers; Parent Attitudes; Parent Child Relationship; prevention; Toddlers; Utterances
• ISSN: 0300-4430; 1476-8275
• DOI: 10.1080/03004430.2021.1943376

Maternal input addressed to children after an early hospitalization (EH) was longitudinally compared to maternal input directed to typically developing children (TD), at 6, 9, 12, 18 and 24 months of age. The data were analyzed with the CHILDES tools for (a) word-tokens (b) word-types (c) Mean Length of Utterances (MLU) and (d) questions in which the mothers request a response or a turn. Nonsignificant differences between groups were found. Only questions were significantly higher for EH mothers than for TD mothers across the five sessions. Lexical Correspondence Analysis (LCA) on these two datasets show qualitative differences between the two groups. Depression and anxiety at 12 months and children attachment behaviour assessed at 18 months do not play a role from EH mothers. These findings suggest that EH mothers have a specific conversational style encouraging their infants and toddlers to request salient information or to perform an action.