| Summary: | Afua Ottie ArhinGrambling State University, Grambling, LA, USAAbstract: It has been documented that adolescent mothers are less verbally and emotionally responsive in their interactions with their children compared to adult mothers. These less than optimal adolescent mother/infant interactions have been found to affect the child’s healthy growth and development. This small study aimed to identify and characterize the frequency of verbal behaviors exhibited in the infant/adolescent mother dyad during feeding sessions during a baseline phase of a study that employed single subject methodology. An individualized bug-in-the-ear feedback and prompting parent training model was instituted in the intervention phase of the study to improve the frequency and quality of infant-mother interaction. Results of the study clearly revealed low frequency of verbal interaction in the baseline phase. After a structured prompting intervention was instituted there were positive effects in the mother’s behaviors which in turn positively impacted infant behavior.Keywords: adolescent mothers, verbal interactions, single subject design
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