Functional Analysis of the Contents of Maternal Speech to Infants of 5 and 13 Months in Four Cultures: Argentina, France, Japan, and the United States.

Maternal speech to infants of 2 ages in 4 cultures was examined to probe how infant age and cultural variation influence the contents of that speech. Argentine, French, Japanese, and U.S. American mothers were individually videotaped in naturalistic free-play interactions at home with their 5- and 13-month-old infants, maternal speech was transcribed, and the contents classified as affect salient or information salient