THE QUALITATIVE DIMENSION OF MOTHER-CHILD PLAY INTERACTION: AN EVALUATION OF MOTHERSʹ VERBAL EXPRESSIONS

It is important, for explaining and supporting mother-child relations, to determine verbal behaviors of mothers in mother-child plays and to divide these behaviors into meaningful categories. The purpose of this study is to make a qualitative evaluation to identify the expressions that mothers use during their free play interaction with children. Eighteen mothers who have children at the age of four or five, participated in this study. Mother-child play interactions were videotaped in their own home setting. The data collected were evaluated through Parent-Child Play Recording Coding Form, and re-formulated in frequencies and percentages. The findings show that mothers used frequently undesired verbal expressions in adapting to childrenʹs demands during playing, responding to children, making a play speech, setting limitation and making comments-informing.