Using the methods of conversation analysis, the opening sequences of a map task in the interactions of sixteen children aged seven to twelve were analyzed. The analytical concerns driving the study were who started, how they started, and how children dealt with differential access to information and the identification of phases within the opening.…

This study investigated whether parent perceptions of their own and their child's levels of talkativeness were related to objective measures recorded via the Language Environment Analysis (LENA) System. Parents of 258 children aged 7 to 60 months completed a questionnaire on which they rated how much they and their child talked. Six months…

Fathers' child-directed speech across two contexts was examined. Father-child dyads from sixty-nine low-income families were videotaped interacting during book reading and toy play when children were 2;0. Fathers used more diverse vocabulary and asked more questions during book reading while their mean length of utterance was longer during toy…

As part of an intervention project to encourage exploratory talk with young children in mathematics, it was found that, although the children did not engage fully in reasoning, the intervention had supported some children in developing more cohesive discourse. The cohesion was evidenced through the children's use of deictic words, in particular…

Repetition is used for a range of functions in conversation. In this study, we examined all the repetitions used in spontaneous conversations by 41 French adult-child dyads, with children aged 2 ; 3 and 3 ; 6, to test the hypotheses that adults repeat to establish that they have understood, and that children repeat to ratify what adults have said.…

This work aims to analyse the specific contribution of social abilities (here considered as the capacity for attributing knowledge to others) in a particular communicative context. 74 normally developing children (aged 3;4 to 5;9, M=4.6) were given two Theory of Mind (ToM) tasks, which are considered to assess increasing complexity levels of…

The study to be reported in this paper examined the work accomplished by "mm" and "mm hm" in the interactions of a parent and his daughter aged 0;10-2;0. Using the findings of Gardner (2001) for adults, the analysis shows that "mm" accomplished a range of functions based on its sequential placement and prosodic features, whereas "mm hm" was much…

Considers aspects of talk into telephones by young children in play. Examines expression of the incorporation of recognition of another's perspective, a movement towards recontextualization of language from the primary conversational contexts of joint environment, and experiences reflected in face-to-face talk on here-and-now topics with familiar…

Investigates the nature of threats and their responses as collaborative units in children's discourse. Research indicates that girls prefer withhold-object or action and harm-threats while boys focus exclusively on harm-threats. Younger children produce more threats than older children, and threats occur more frequently in child-directed settings…

Conversational samples of 10 dyads of 4-year-old children during play were analyzed. All dyads evidenced some lengthy topics (13-91 utterances), characterized by 3 text-level functions: enacting scenarios, describing, and problem solving. Three-fourths of all dialogues were considered relatively short. (Author/JDD)

Using transcripts of children's talk, this paper examines the validity of claims that children provided with opportunities to work cooperatively and collaboratively in small groups will use talk to help them make meaning and enhance their cognitive understanding. The claims are substantiated. (Contains 32 references.) (Author/LB)

Analysis of the discourse demands across the school year within a recurred event, "Circle Time," is presented to show how three and four year olds learned to be conversationally appropriate partners within a group, how the teacher's interactional patterns shifted as students learned, and how participation in the subevents added differing…

Adult "redoing" sequences (expansions and repeats) in conversations between adult and child (age 1;6) are analyzed with a conversational analytic approach, and two ways in which redoing sequences are involved in the initiation of repair are explored. It is proposed that a redoing sequence picks up a child's utterance and displays it for some kind…

This study examined the effects of maternal directive and nondirective styles of interaction on the emergence of verbal communicative intent in toddlers, and sought to understand the association between maternal interaction styles and young children's pragmatic acquisition. During free play, maternal utterances of 12 mother-child dyads, with…

Presents four articles in the context of workshop discussions on characteristics of environments that promote language development: (1) "Children's Conversations: Why are They Important?"; (2) "Ways of Talking: Respecting Differences"; (3) Paul's Talk: Teachers and Parents Look at a Child's Language"; and (4) "In the…