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Caregiver attention-focusing and children's attention-sharing behaviours as predictors of later verbal IQ in very low birthweight children

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 April 2002

CHRIS L. SCHMIDT  and
KATHARINE R. LAWSON
CHRIS L. SCHMIDT
Affiliation:
Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Children's Hospital at Montefiore
KATHARINE R. LAWSON
Affiliation:
Department of Pediatrics, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Children's Hospital at Montefiore
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Abstract

Specific relationships between verbal and nonverbal aspects of caregiver attention-focusing events and later verbal IQ were investigated for a risk sample of 26 very low birthweight [VLBW], preterm [PT] children. Videotaped interactions between VLBW, PT children at 2;0 and their caregivers were coded for caregiver attention-focusing speech and/or caregiver attention-focusing gestures (display, demonstration and pointing), caregiver gesture–speech combinations, and for child attention-sharing through gesture and social gaze. To investigate the specific effects of caregiver and child interactional factors, analyses statistically controlled for cognitive status. Simultaneous multiple regression analyses found that overall caregiver attention-focusing involving gesture, child attention-sharing behaviours, and cognitive status each significantly and uniquely contributed to verbal IQ at 3;0. Further analyses contrasted the contributions of caregiver gesture with relevant descriptive speech, caregiver gesture with no speech/nondescriptive speech, and caregiver pointing. Results of these analyses suggest that caregiver gesture with relevant descriptive speech makes a unique and positive contribution to later language performance.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 29 , Issue 1 , February 2002 , pp. 3 - 22
Copyright
© 2002 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This research was supported by a grant from the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation and NICHD Grant T32HDO7384. We are grateful to the families who participated in the study, to Mary Capozzoli, Ellen Ganon, K. B. Jankowski, and Marlene Spector who assisted with testing and data collection and to Melinda Fuller and Wendy Reddock who assisted in coding the videotaped sessions. We also thank Holly Ruff, Susan Rose, Judith Feldman, and Gerald Turkewitz for helpful comments.