Verschillen in het gebruik van mental states taal door ouders van peuters met en zonder taalontwikkelingsstoornis

Abstract

Introduction. The current study examined whether parents of toddlers with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) and parents of normal developing toddlers differed in their use of mental states language (MS-language). The aim of the current study was to contribute to the literature about DLD and to gain more insight in the language use of parents of toddlers with DLD. It was expected that parents of toddlers with DLD would use less MS-language and would use less references to cognitive terms. Method. Transcribed filmed observations of parent-child interactions (nDLD = 41, ncontrol = 40) were used. These observations were coded for the use of MS-language (total, cognitive terms, desires and emotion references). AN(C)OVA’s were used to compare the groups with each other. Results. As expected, the parents of toddlers with DLD used less MS-language and less references to cognitive terms than parents of normal developing toddlers did. The covariate social-economic status (SES) was not related to the use of MS-language and the use of cognitive terms. Conclusion. The current research is, as far as known, one of the few to show that there are differences in the use of MS-language between parents of toddlers with DLD and normally developing toddlers. Future research is recommended to further examine the directionality of this relationship.