Mother-child communication: Cultural differences

Communication with children plays a crucial role not only for cognitive and social-emotional development but also in a more general sense for an understanding of self and self in relation to others. Research from linguistic anthropology and cultural developmental psychology have shown that there exists a great variety of cultural genres of communicating with children that are in line with the relevant broader cultural ideologies of good child care. Culture, communication, and self- development are inextricably intertwined. Culturally distinct communicative practices in which children participate will therefore ultimately lead to different cultural developmental pathways. While traditional research in developmental psychology has focused on mother–child dyads and experimental designs there is an increasing recognition of the need for naturalistic studies of everyday communication with children including their broader social network.