Abstract

In this study the predictive association of attachment and play competence on language at the beginning of a child's 3rd year was documented. Twenty-four infants were tested at 18 and 26 months of age. At 18 months data on play competence were collected during a video-recorded play session and security of mother-infant attachment was assessed with the Attachment Q-Sort (AQS). When infants were 26 months old the Italian version of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories (CDI) for the assessment of children's linguistic development was administered to their mothers. The results showed that security of attachment and symbolic play are associated and that both are predictors of subsequent language development. High AQS scores and the ability to use with greater frequency more sophisticated play levels, were related to the indices that identify linguistic productive competence at 26 months of age. Security of attachment was found to have the greatest predictive power on language development, whereas symbolic play did'nt add a significant contribution to the prediction.