Maternal Directiveness in Interactions with Mentally Handicapped Children: An Analytical Commentary

Marfo, Kofi

doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.1990.tb00796.x

Cited by 119 publications

(108 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…This confi rms much previous work (e.g. Marfo, 1990), and again it would be important to know if this was also the case in home situations. Several researchers (e.g.…”

Section: Caregiver Behaviours During Interactionscontrasting

confidence: 42%

Mastery motivation in children with Down syndrome

Glenn¹,

Dayus²,

Cunningham³

et al. 2001

Downs Syndr. Res. Pract.

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-Mastery motivation refers to the intrinsic motivation children have to interact with their environments in order to learn about them. It appears early in life, and has been regarded by many researchers as a key motivator for development. It has also been suggested that young school age children with Down syndrome show lowered motivation to perform tasks. It is important to know if this low motivation is present from the start, or develops as a result of environmental experiences; studies of mastery motivation have been one way of investigating this issue. However defi nitions of mastery motivation, and hence empirical studies, have varied. Thus this paper starts by revisiting the issues surrounding defi nition and measurement. There is general agreement on some issues: that mastery motivation is intrinsic, that it is manifest in different behaviours as the child develops, that there are individual differences in mastery behaviour, and that these are affected by environmental factors. There is also current agreement that it is essential to remove the confound of differing levels of developmental competence by using individualised measurement. However there is disagreement about which behaviours best index mastery motivation. Some empirical work with infants with Down syndrome is reviewed, and results from a recent longitudinal study on the development of mastery motivation are presented. The results concurred with most others in the recent literature, suggesting that low mastery motivation is not inevitable in infancy in Down syndrome. Infants with Down syndrome showed similar patterns of development as typically developing children, with slight delays. It is argued that longitudinal studies are needed to demonstrate such patterns of development. As the children developed from 6 to 24 months mental age there was no evidence for decreasing levels of mastery motivation. Thus there was no support for the view that more failure experiences impact on levels of mastery motivation. In contrast caregivers did see their young children with Down syndrome as less object mastery oriented than did caregivers of typically developing children. The caregivers of children with Down syndrome were also signifi cantly more directive in their interactions with their children, and there was some suggestion that individual differences in mastery behaviours were related to levels of mastery behaviours in their children. The fi nal section speculates on reasons for these results, and makes suggestions for future work.

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“…This confi rms much previous work (e.g. Marfo, 1990), and again it would be important to know if this was also the case in home situations. Several researchers (e.g.…”

Section: Caregiver Behaviours During Interactionscontrasting

confidence: 42%

Mastery motivation in children with Down syndrome

Glenn¹,

Dayus²,

Cunningham³

et al. 2001

Downs Syndr. Res. Pract.

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“…However, when findings with rates of development were examined, higher levels of mothers' early directiveness related to a slower rate of increase in cognitive-language development through 3 years of age for all children and to more deceleration in both social skills for the HR children as compared with the FT and LR children. A directive style may predict better 18-month performance because cognitive demands at this age require understanding actions with objects and early word usages, and performance on these skills can be enhanced by being taught with a directive approach (see Marfo, 1990). A directive style may negatively predict the curvature parameters because at later ages, cognitive demands become more complex, requiring children to integrate information.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…TwO aspects of the children's social competence were coded; responsiveness to mothers' attention-directing behaviors and requests and initiations of social interactions. Children's social competence was examined from their interactions with their mothers in the home environment rather than with an examiner because children acquire their social skills at these young ages through interactions with their primary caretaker (Marfo, 1990). This approach was, therefore, expected to provide a more valid representation of their skills.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Predicting cognitive-language and social growth curves from early maternal behaviors in children at varying degrees of biological risk.

Landry¹,

Smith²,

Miller-Loncar³

et al. 1997

Developmental Psychology

348

296

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Growth modeling was used to examine the relation of early parenting behaviors (averaged across 6 and 12 months) with rates of change in children's cognitive-language and social response and initiating skills assessed at 6, 12, 24, and 40 months. Groups of full-term (n = 112) and very low birth weight children, divided into medically low (n = 114) and high risk (HR; n = 73), were included to evaluate whether children who vary in their rate of development are influenced in different ways by early parenting styles. Parenting behaviors that were sensitive to children's focus of interest and did not highly control or restrict their behaviors predicted greater increases and faster rates of cognitive-language and social development, with relations stronger for the HR versus the other two groups. These maternal behaviors may provide the support all infants need to establish an optimal early foundation for later development and the specific support HR children need to learn in spite of early attentional and organizational problems. Across the past several decades, studies have examined aspects of early parenting that promote children's competencies, such as cooperation, self-assertion, initiative, and independence in problem solving (e.g.

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“…In most cases, though not all, this directive attitude has been associated with intrusiveness and with a lack of positivity and sensitivity (Berger & Cunningham, 1983). However, when trying to study the relation between maternal directiveness and intrusiveness, investigators have often attributed to the former an adaptive and functional role (Cielinski et al 1995;Crawley & Spiker 1983;Marfo, 1990). Furthermore, some investigators, focusing on mother-child play interaction with children with DS, do not find any difference from typically developing children in terms of maternal sensitivity and dyadic harmony, despite the directiveness shown by mothers (Beeghly et al, 1989;Crawlay & Spiker, 1983).…”

Section: Mother-child Interaction In Children With Down Syndromementioning

confidence: 99%

Play and emotional availability in young children with Down syndrome

Venuti

Falco

Giusti

et al. 2008

Infant Mental Health Journal

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This study investigates mother-child interaction and its associations with play in children with Down syndrome (DS). There is consensus that mother-child interaction during play represents an important determinant of typical children's play development. Concerning children with DS, few studies have investigated mother-child interaction in terms of the overall emotional quality of dyadic interaction and its effect on child play. A sample of 28 children with DS (M age = 3 years) took part in this study. In particular, we studied whether the presence of the mother in an interactional context affects the exploratory and symbolic play of children with DS and the interrelation between children's level of play and dyadic emotional availability. Children showed significantly more exploratory play during collaborative play with mothers than during solitary play. However, the maternal effect on child symbolic play was higher in children of highly sensitive mothers relative to children whose mothers showed lower sensitivity, the former displaying more symbolic play than the latter in collaborative play. Results offer some evidence that dyadic emotional availability and child play level are associated in children with DS, consistent with the hypothesis that dyadic interactions based on a healthy level of emotional involvement may lead to enhanced cognitive functioning.RESUMEN: El objetivo de este estudio fue investigar la interacción madre-infante y sus asociaciones con el juego en el caso de lo niños con el síndrome de Down (SD). Hay consenso con respecto a que la interacción madre-infante durante el juego representa un importante determinante en cómo los niños típicos desarrollan su juego. Con respecto a niños con síndrome de Down, pocos estudios han investigado la interacción madre-infante -en términos de la calidad emocional en general de la interacción de la díada -y sus efectos en el juego del niño. En este estudio, participó un grupo muestra de 28 niños con síndrome de Down (M edad = 3 años). En particular, queríamos verificar si la presencia de la madre en un contexto interaccional afecta el juego exploratorio y simbólico del niño con síndrome de Down, así como la interrelación entre el nivel de juego del niño y la disponibilidad emocional de la díada. Los niños mostraron significativamente más juego exploratorio durante la colaboración en el juego con madres que durante los momentos de juego solitario. Sin embargo, el efecto maternal sobre el juego simbólico del niño fue mayor en aquellos niños cuyas madres eran altamente sensibles, con relación a los niños cuyas madres mostraron más baja sensibilidad; aquéllos mostraron más juego simbólico queéstos durante las sesiones de juego colaborativo. Los resultados ofrecen alguna evidencia de que la disponibilidad emocional de la díada y el nivel de juego del niño están asociados en los casos de niños con síndrome de Down, consistente con la hipótesis de que las interacciones díadicas basadas en un saludable nivel de involucramiento emocional pudieran llevar a un...

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Maternal Directiveness in Interactions with Mentally Handicapped Children: An Analytical Commentary

Cited by 119 publications

References 35 publications

Mastery motivation in children with Down syndrome

Mastery motivation in children with Down syndrome

Predicting cognitive-language and social growth curves from early maternal behaviors in children at varying degrees of biological risk.

Play and emotional availability in young children with Down syndrome

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