For parents to provide effective support for their children’s language development, they must be attuned to their child’s changing abilities. This study presents a theoretically driven strategy that addresses a methodological challenge present when tracking longitudinally the cessation or ‘fading’ of behaviors by capturing withdrawal of maternal assistance over time relative to change in child participation. Data are the co-constructed narratives of 31 mother–child dyads when the children were 3, 4, and 5 years old. Responsibility for providing narrative macrostructure shifted from children relying on maternal prompts to contributing them spontaneously, while maternal contributions showed a gradual cessation. The findings support the notion of bidirectionality in co-construction and are interpreted using a dose-effect model of the shift in responsibility for the narration over time with implications for intervention.
This article is focused on the different Home Language Surveys (HLS) used across U.S. states as a means of identifying students who, with further assessment, may prove eligible for language-support services. The majority of states mandate some form of HLS, be it state- or district-created. However, there is great variation in the number and the phrasing of survey items across states that raises issues of equity. To date, there is a dearth of evidence for the validity of HLS in the procedures used for identifying students for English learner (EL) status. States must recognize that the fundamental role of an HLS in their English-language proficiency assessment systems necessitates its further scrutiny as part of the assessment validation process. The article concludes with a series of recommendations for federal- and state-level actions to help remedy current concerns with EL identification processes around the nation.
The internal working model of attachment has been assessed through attachment interviews and story-stems that exhibit differentiated patterns in adult and child narratives. This study examined variation in length and structure of children's independent personal narratives by attachment representations, discriminating between insecure-avoidant and insecure-ambivalent, and we tested attachment insecurity as a predictor of developmental delay in narrative discourse. Sixty-five preschool-age children completed the Attachment Story Completion Task-Revised and recalled three recent past events. Secure children told longer personal narratives than both avoidant and ambivalent children, and secure children's narrative structure was more coherent than that of ambivalent children but not avoidant children. Likewise, the two insecure categories differentially predicted delayed discourse. Ambivalent children were 10 times more likely to exhibit delayed discourse than secure children, whereas avoidant children were not at significantly greater risk. Differential developmental outcomes of avoidant and ambivalent children are discussed and conclusions are drawn about the role of child attachment in storing, accessing and communicating memories about everyday lived experiences.
This study investigated the empirical bases for 2 dimensions of narrative coconstruction (autonomy support and verbal synchrony) with 65 mother–child dyads. Links between the 2 narrative dimensions and child narrative competence were tested, and differences in autonomy support and verbal synchrony across attachment groups (child story‐stem measure) were examined. Child independent narratives and mother–child narrative conversations were coded and analysed at the turn‐by‐turn level. Principal components analysis revealed the verbal behaviours that composed autonomy support and verbal synchrony reflected the extent to which mothers supported their children's independent competence and the degree to which interactions were mutually reciprocal and constructive, respectively. As predicted, avoidant and ambivalent dyads differed in terms of autonomy support but were comparable on verbal synchrony, revealing the differential influence of insecure attachment on mother–child narrative coconstruction. As hypothesized, autonomy support was related to child independent narrative competence when narrating collaboratively and alone, and verbal synchrony was related to more child engagement during narrative conversations. Theoretical, methodological, and practical implications are discussed.
Highlights
This study examines autonomy support and verbal synchrony during narrative coconstruction, links to child narrative competence, and differences across attachment groups.
With a microanalytic approach, findings reveal the first empirical evidence of the relation between child attachment representations and maternal autonomy support in narrative conversations.
Results underscore the importance of microanalysis in revealing unique and separate dimensions contributing to the conversation in which the story is constructed and to the story itself.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.