This study examined developmental competence and mother-child interaction during feeding and play among 110 low income, urban African American infants and toddlers, and their mothers. Convergent validity was examined by comparing two parental factors (nurturance and control) and two child factors (interactive communication and affective regulation) from feeding and play observations with data from observations in the home, performance on standardized developmental assessments, and parental questionnaires. The extension of factors derived from observations of mothers and children during feeding and play into analyses based on ecological theory relating parental nurturance and control to children's competence provided construct validity for the observational procedure, and contributed to our understanding of mother-child relationships and the development of competence among low income, African American children. Copyright 1996 Ablex Publishing Corporation.