Talking after school: Parents’ conversational styles and children’s memory for a science lesson

Leichtman, Michelle D.; Camilleri, Kaitlin A.; Pillemer, David B.; Amato‐Wierda, Carmela; Hogan, Jennifer E.; Dongo, Melissa D.

doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2016.11.002

Cited by 28 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 30 publications

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“…Such explanatory talk can be especially important, as it supplies children with relevant information and can provide insight into underlying causal mechanisms that children would be unlikely to acquire through first-hand exploration ( Crowley and Callanan, 1998 ; Shtulman and Checa, 2012 ; Haden et al, 2014 ; Vlach and Noll, 2016 ). Indeed, explanatory conversations between parents and their children in informal learning settings can be beneficial for scientific learning outcomes in both the short-term ( Haden, 2010 ; Leichtman et al, 2017 ) and long-term ( Tenenbaum et al, 2005 ). In the current study, we explored the impact of a brief training session on parent-child conversation in informal science learning for 4- to 6-years-old children.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating Science Together: Inquiry-Based Training Promotes Scientific Conversations in Parent-Child Interactions

2020

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This study examined the effects of two pedagogical training approaches on parentchild dyads' discussion of scientific content in an informal museum setting. Fortyseven children (mean age = 5.43) and their parents were randomly assigned to training conditions where an experimenter modeled one of two different pedagogical approaches when interacting with the child and a science-based activity: (1) a scientific inquiry-based process or (2) a scientific statement-sharing method. Both approaches provided the same information about scientific mechanisms but differed in the process through which that content was delivered. Immediately following the training, parents were invited to model the same approach with their child with a novel science-based activity. Results indicated significant differences in the process through which parents prompted discussion of the targeted information content: when talking about causal scientific concepts, parents in the scientific inquiry condition were significantly more likely to pose questions to their child than parents in the scientific statements condition. Moreover, children in the scientific inquiry condition were marginally more responsive to parental causal talk and provided significantly more scientific content in response. These findings provide initial evidence that training parents to guide their children using scientific inquiry-based approaches in informal learning settings can encourage children to participate in more joint scientific conversations.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigating Science Together: Inquiry-Based Training Promotes Scientific Conversations in Parent-Child Interactions

2020

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“…We predicted (a) there would be substantial variation across mothers and across children in conversational variables of interest, including previously studied elaboration, evaluations, and emotion talk, and newly coded personality talk and physical descriptives. We predicted that within mothers and within children, these variables would be positively correlated with each other, reflecting stylistic differences among dyads (e.g., Fivush et al, 2006;Leichtman et al, 2017). We also predicted variation in mothers' personal intelligence scores, based on research with other populations (e.g., Mayer, Lortie et al, 2018).…”

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confidence: 99%

‘How would you describe Grandpa?’ Mothers’ personal intelligence predicts personality talk with their children

2021

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Mother-child conversations reflect and support many important skills-including, perhaps, children's understanding of personality. Children acquire an understanding of people's personalities during the preschool and early elementary years. This study of 4-to 9-year-old children and their 'He was sad at recess'.'She was crying hard'.'That made me angry'. Personality talkCoded by instance, expressed in a single word or phrase. Includes references to trait-relevant behavior and overall personality characteristics.Refers to an individual's ongoing characteristics, not behavior that occurred on one occasion.'She always shares her toys'.'You are a talkative boy'.'Richard is silly'.'I love giving people stuff. I am generous'. Physical descriptivesCoded by instance, expressed in a single word or phrase. Include references to appearance or physical traits.'John is taller than Cathy'.'You have blonde hair'.'They don't have the same face'.'They both have light skin'.Note: All variables above were coded on speech that included sentences and questions.a Elaborations and evaluations were mutually exclusive.b Emotion talk, personality talk, and physical descriptives were mutually exclusive, but could be contained within propositions coded as elaborations or evaluations.

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“…Regarding memories of learning specifically, Leichtman et al () found that preschoolers (ages 4 to 6 years) were able to accurately report on a learning event that occurred a week earlier, especially if they experienced a highly elaborative conversation with their parent on the day that the event occurred. Thus, by the age of 4, children's skills in episodic memory are robust enough that even after a week‐long delay, children can verbally access and recall various kinds of events, including personal events, staged events that are part of a laboratory task, and learning events.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, research has documented the impact of long delays on memories of learning episodes among older children (Nuthall & Alton‐Lee, ) and adults (Conway et al, ), but little is known about how delays of any length impact memories of learning among young children. Nonetheless, past research on children's memories of learning (i.e., Bemis et al, ; Leichtman et al, ) suggest that for preschoolers, as for adults, recalling instances of learning bolsters retention of the factual knowledge that was learned. Thus, from a pedagogical perspective, involving young children in the process of recalling memories of learning may help with them retrieve and maintain factual knowledge.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

That was last time! The effect of a delay on children's episodic memories of learning new facts

Bemis

Leichtman

2018

Infant and Child Development

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Accurately remembering how and when one's own learning occurs is an important metacognitive skill that matures during the early school years. In two studies, the impact of a delay on this ability was examined. In Study 1, 30 children in two age groups (4‐year‐olds and 5‐year‐olds) participated in two‐staged learning events and were interviewed immediately after each event about the facts they had learned in the events and about how they had acquired them. Children in both age groups learned the facts, but had significant difficulty reporting on their own learning. In Study 2, 79 children in the same age range participated in one staged learning event and were given similar interviews as in Study 1, either immediately after the event or after a 2‐ to 3‐day delay. Five‐year‐olds were more accurate in their memories of learning in the delay condition than in the immediate condition, but 4‐year‐olds showed no performance differences as a function of delay. Findings are interpreted in light of developmental literature on episodic memory, source monitoring, and memory binding. Highlights How does a delay interval between impact children's ability to accurately recall episodic memories of their own learning? Children completed staged learning events. Four‐ and five‐year‐olds struggled to recall instances of learning immediately, but five‐year‐olds improved after a delay. Five‐year‐olds, but not four‐year‐olds, appear to benefit from a moderate delay when recalling learning episodes. This could be due to developments in other metacognitive skills.

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Talking after school: Parents’ conversational styles and children’s memory for a science lesson

Cited by 28 publications

References 30 publications

Investigating Science Together: Inquiry-Based Training Promotes Scientific Conversations in Parent-Child Interactions

Investigating Science Together: Inquiry-Based Training Promotes Scientific Conversations in Parent-Child Interactions

‘How would you describe Grandpa?’ Mothers’ personal intelligence predicts personality talk with their children

That was last time! The effect of a delay on children's episodic memories of learning new facts

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