Maternal Symptoms of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder and Maternal Language: Implications for Infant Language Development

The relationship between maternal ADHD symptoms and maternal language was examined in a community sample of 50 mothers of infants age 3–12 months. It was hypothesized that higher maternal symptoms of ADHD would be related to lower quality of maternal language use. Recordings of mothers’ speech were coded for complexity and elaboration of speech and vocabulary diversity during an interview with an adult and during mother–infant play interactions in the home. Hierarchical regression analysis revealed that maternal ADHD symptoms were significantly related to mothers’ lower mean length of utterances during the interview and during mother–infant play interactions. Maternal ADHD symptoms were not related to maternal vocabulary use in either of these situations. Our findings suggest that mothers with higher ADHD symptoms may display exiguous language behaviors when interacting with their infants and with adults. In addition, findings suggest one reason why current parent-management programs for children with ADHD, which are verbally based and rely heavily on the parent’s communication skills, are relatively ineffective when ADHD may be present in the parent.