The purpose of the present study was to investigate turn-taking behavior and the function of utterances produced by mothers when communicating with their children with Down syndrome, by comparing such mothers to the mothers of children without Down syndrome. Forty children (20 with Down syndrome and 20 without) and their mothers participated. The 2 groups of children were matched for Expressive Language Age (ELA) and MLU. Each mother-child dyad was videotaped at home during free play and at meal time. It was found that during free play, the mothers of children with Down syndrome produced more utterances and turns than the mothers of children with no disabilities, but this difference was not observed during mealtime. During free play, the mothers of children with Down syndrome produced more directions and questions, and fewer responses than the other mothers. At mealtime, the mothers of children with Down syndrome produced more questions, information, and evaluations, and fewer responses than the other mothers. When the 2 conditions were combined, the mothers of children with Down syndrome were found to have produced more questions and evaluations, and fewer responses than the other mothers. The results indicate that it would be undesirable to characterize maternal communication style using data collected in only one situation.
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