Maternal perceptions about babies' sociocommunicative skills

The purpose of this study was to analyse the maternal perceptions about babies’ sociocommunicative skills in their first year of life. The study was based on the premise that the parents` perception about the baby’s intentional communication can influence the dynamics of the initial interactions and the parental strategies to respond to the babies’ behaviours. This research involved the participation of 45 mothers of babies aged six, nine and twelve months old. In order to know the maternal perceptions about the babies’ intentional communicative skills The Pragmatic Profile of Everyday Communication Skills in Children, a structured interview focused on sociocommunicative aspects of language, was used. The results indicated variation on the maternal perception related to the baby’s age, indicated by the mothers’ descriptions about different sociocommunicative abilities of their babies which, at twelve months, included the use of gestures with intentional vocalization. It showed, also, that some of the mothers seemed to ignore the presence of sociocommunicative abilities in their babies, what can influence the way they interact with their children. It is considered that the data of this study are important to the parents and professionals comprehension about the socioecommunicative dimension of language, to the detection of alterations on sociocommunicative abilities of joint attention and intentional communication, as well as for planning interventions to promote child development.

Maternal behavior; Comunication mother child; Mother-child relations; Infant vocalization