Out of the mouth of babes: first-time disadvantaged mothers and their perceptions of infant communication

Abstract

An increasing emphasis is being placed on the importance of speech, language and communication (SLC) development during the first two years of life, since this contributes to cognitive ability and to later educational outcomes. This article explores what disadvantaged, first-time mothers know and understand about three key contributors to positive infant SLC development: child-directed speech, book-sharing and mother–child interaction. Fifty mothers completed questionnaires and 20 mothers were interviewed. The findings show that: mothers were unsure of the value of child-directed speech; few mothers offered a rationale for book-sharing; the interviewed teen mothers were not sharing books with their babies and although most mothers agreed that repeating sounds supported language development, mothers were less sure about whether babies could copy speech sounds at 2 months. Although this is a small-scale study, it offers some useful pointers for supporting mothers in child communication and some new areas for further research.

Keywords:

• first-time mothers
• infant speech
• language and communication
• Sure Start

Acknowledgements

My thanks to Dr Michael Joplin for his insightful comments and constructive feedback on this article.