Social Sciences

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the dynamics of mother-child interaction in the context of prenatal exposure to drugs. A functional systems approach to the problem was presented as an alternative to other theoretical methods in which dichotomous relationships are emphasized. A model of interaction was proposed that focused on the mutual exchanges and interdependent relationships that exist within and between multiple levels of interactions.

Fifteen mother-child dyads participated in this study. Each dyad was assigned to one of three comparison groups. The HOME Inventory showed that prenatally exposed children living with their biological mothers had significantly less variety of stimulation in the home than the children in the other groups.

The global rating revealed that the biological mothers of the prenatally exposed children were less sensitive and less responsive to the interests and behaviors of their children than the mothers in the foster and control groups. The foster mothers scored significantly lower on the measure of social stimulation and quantity of direction during interactive sessions.

The children who were prenatally exposed and still living with the biological mothers were significantly less active than the other children, but the children living in foster care showed less emotional expressiveness than the children living with their biological mothers.

Overall, the children who were prenatally exposed to drugs were less verbal than the children in the control group. Although the average number of utterances for the mothers in each group did not vary significantly, the types of utterances did vary across groups. The mothers in the foster and control groups tended to use more questions and comments when interactions with their children and the biological mothers of the prenatally exposed children tended to use more directives.

The play episodes were analyzed for events of joint attention versus events of parallel play. It was found that the dyads involving biological mothers and their prenatally exposed children engaged in more parallel play than joint attention. The opposite was true of the control mothers and their children. The distribution of events was fairly evenly divided among the dyads in the foster group.

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This paper considers etiological factors associated with fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), presents a critical review of current findings on language deficits and FAS, and proposes a direction for future research which takes into account the semiotic aspects of ianguage development. Criteria for establishing FAS as well as other typical characteristics are identified. Discussion focuses on methodological issues around findings that young FAS children often show delayed language development, produce less complex grammatical forms than linguistically matched younger normals, and perform more poorly on recall of short term memory tasks than younger children of normal intelligence. Researchers are urged to evaluate language skills in the context of real life communication situations and semiotic aspects including the use of eye contact and gestures. Tables detail the literature review. (Contains 52 references.) (DB) *********************************************************************** Rep...