Merrill-Palmer Quarterly

This study examined the relationship between characteristics of mothers' talk about future events and young children's ability to contribute to naturalistic conversations about future events. Results indicated that three maternal style factors were related to 2.5- and 4-year-olds' contributions: elaborative/advanced language, general and past reference, and repetitive prompts and preferences. Younger children's contributions were related to elaborative/advanced language and general and past reference factors. Older children's contributions were correlated with all three factors, but the highest correlation was found for elaborative/advanced language. These findings indicate that the maternal style variables affecting children's contributions to conversations about future events are different from those found in research on mother-child talk about past events. Mothers' use of conventional time terms was also related to 4-year-olds' production of temporal terms, suggesting that maternal time references contribute to children's understanding and use of temporal terminology. Results are discussed in terms of the relationship between mother-child conversations about future events and the development of young children's understanding of future time.