Quality of caregiver-child play interactions with toddlers born preterm and full term: Antecedents and language outcome.

•Caregiver sensitivity, responsivity and verbal elaboration were similar for 22-month-old children born preterm and full term.•Caregivers of 22-month-old children born preterm were more intrusive, on average, than caregivers of children born full term.•Child interactional behavior was associated with concurrent caregiver interactional behavior in both PT and FT toddlers.•Children of parents who were responsive, verbally elaborative, and non-intrusive scored higher on receptive vocabulary.•Preterm birth did not change the strength of the association between caregiver behavior and later receptive vocabulary skill.