Maternal verbalizations were operationalized as prompts and elaborations.Prompts were defined as specific instructions to the children to engage in pretend actions. Maternal elaborations were defined as “contingent responses that extendthe child’s pretending by adding new material the matically related to the preceding play”. For example, the child is feeding the doll, and the mother says, “I think the dolly likes it. What else do you think dolly would like to eat?” Prompts and elaborations were counted only if they brought a new contribution to pretense. That is,if mothers prompted children three times in a row, for example, to talk on the phone, this was coded as one prompt. However, if mothers prompted children to talk on the phone and then asked childrento feed the doll, these were considered two prompts.