THE RELATION BETWEEN CHILDREN'S EARLY EXPOSURE TO COMMUNICATION-PROMOTING STRATEGIES AND LATER BEHAVIORAL ADJUSTMENT AND ADAPTIVE SKILLS

Abstract

Children's ability to develop and utilize language to better understand themselves and the environment around them facilitates their capacity to learn, interact, and adapt effectively in a variety of situations. Parents and caregivers can play a significant role in enhancing children's communicative and linguistic abilities by responding to children's interests, activities, and communication attempts while modeling and praising the appropriate use of words and grammatical structures during the course of everyday adult-child interactions. The current study sought to determine whether children's early exposure to communication-promoting strategies that emphasize such concepts is associated with increased behavioral and emotional adjustment and adaptive functioning. Results suggested an association exists between children's classroom exposure to evidence-based strategies and lower T-scores on the BASC-2 TRS Behavioral Symptoms Index composite and higher T-scores on the BASC-2 TRS Adaptive Skills Composite. In addition, children's frequency of communication in the classroom was associated with higher T-scores on the BASC-2 TRS Adaptive Skills Composite. This may indicate that child care providers can utilize communication-promoting strategies to enhance children's behavioral and emotional adjustment and adaptive functioning. Methods of training parents and child care providers in the use of communication-promoting strategies are discussed.