Preschoolers' communication during scripted interactions

Abstract

The communicative interactions of 15 dyads of four- to five-year-olds during pretend play involving routine, or scripted, events were investigated as a function of the children's knowledge of the scripts. Measures of the quantity and quality of interaction and the strategies that the children used to establish mutual knowledge (i.e. assess and adapt to their discourse partner's level of expertise), which is essential to good communication, were examined. Each dyad participated in a MATCHED condition (both members had extensive knowledge of the script) and a MISMATCHED condition (one member had extensive script knowledge and the other did not). Shared script knowledge facilitated communicative interactions, as indicated by more topic maintenance and fewer requests for clarification in the matched condition than in the mismatched condition. The children attempted to establish mutual knowledge more frequently in the mismatched condition than in the matched condition and, moreover, mutual knowledge establishment was related to the children's communicative effectiveness.

Toddler Peers: From Nonverbal Coordinated Action to Verbal Discourse

“…For example, when 30-40-month-olds interacted around a childsized model kitchen versus with an assortment of less-thematically-related toys, they engaged in more interaction involving the achievement of a shared goal (our coordinated action) and they talked more with each other and did so in a more topicallycoherent way (French et al, 1991). Similarly, with somewhat older children, the sharing of scripts for familiar events has been demonstrated to facilitate their discourse in pretend play (e.g., Furman & Walden, 1990;Nelson & Gruendel, 1979;Nelson & Seidman, 1984;Short-Meyerson & Abbeduto, 1997).…”

10. Components of pragmatic ability and children’s pragmatic language development

“…But he was nice; Bartsch and Wellman 1995: 53). Four-and five-year-olds have also been shown to explicitly question and track the knowledge possessed by a conversational partner (Short-Meyerson and Abbeduto 1997;Saylor, Baird, and Gallerani 2006;Short-Meyerson 2010). By this age, in peer-to-peer conversation in non-play settings (e.g., snacktime), children have demonstrated an ability to initiate conversations about topics related to the mental states of their conversational partners (e.g., Did you know Pokeman has this many arms?…”

An exploratory investigation of the dramatic play of preschool children within a grocery store shopping context

“…Compared to the preschool-age children, the older had children more complex, sophisticated scripts. However, research shows that children, preschoolers in particular, communicate more effectively and advance their socio-cognitive abilities when scripts are shared mutually (Short-Meyerson & Abbeduto, 1997).…”