Mothers' social communicative adjustments to young children with mild developmental delays.

The social communication and compliance patterns of 63 mothers interacting with their young children who had mild developmental delays in social play and instructional tasks were examined in a longitudinal study. Results were consistent with the hypothesis that mothers appropriately adjust their social communications in accordance with children's developmental characteristics and task demands. The extent of scaffolding specificity that mothers used in the instructional task also indicated a high level of sensitivity to children's developmental characteristics. Analyses conducted over a 2-year period revealed that adjustments were commensurate with children's emerging social communication abilities, suggesting that mothers of children with developmental delays continue to display social communication patterns that are supportive of their child's development.