Conversation and Conceptual Development: Challenges, Alternatives, and Future Directions

Distancing Theory: Looking at Early Ontogeny through Sigel’s Perspective

“…This is surely also linked to the fact that we have made closer assessments than is usually the case (only 8 weeks between two measurements). Thus it is no surprise that we did not find the same tendencies in infants as with school-age children, with whom distancing tends to decrease with age (at the end of school age), to the advantage of negotiations with the parent (Callanan, Cervantes, & Sabbagh, 1999;Sigel, 1993;Sigel, Stinson, & Flaugher, 1991). If a tendency exists in our results, it is a tendency to increase the level of PDAs, particularly for mothers who do not distance at the highest levels at the beginning of the study.…”