Young children's polyadic conversation monitoring skills

Abstract

Child language has been largely concerned with language development in 'dyadic'context. Pre-school children's triadic and polyadic language skills, linguistic and social interactional skills necessary for interacting with more than two people, were identified and examined. Third party (or person) reference is considered, as an intrinsically triadic language form. Utilizing third party reference in a videotaped setting, the first study examines 3;5-to 4;5-aged children's responses to name overhearing and identifies a non-random response pattern indicative of conversation monitoring ability. The second study looking at three age groups (2;5 to 5;5) examines the development of this ability and investigates reasons for the response pattern observed. The results identify a transitional stage, linking conversation monitoring with group conversational participation, and are discussed with reference to the role of overhearing.

Development of social relationships, interactions and behaviours in early education settings

“…This goes beyond what has been suggested in some studies that in the second year of life, children are able to form expectations about and anticipate what other people do (Haselager et al, 2002). At 3 years of age, most children are able to pay attention to others’ conversations (Dunn and Shatz, 1989), and they respond when spoken about or mentioned by name (Forrester, 1988).…”

Usage patterns in the development of Hebrew grammatical subjects

“…A context-bound study that takes dialogical conditions into account has been proven relevant in many cases, especially in accounting for the emergence of pragmatically dependent elements (such as the emergence of pronouns, conversational contexts containing turn-taking, interaction, and third party reference). These, and other interactive phenomena utilize triadic or polyadic skills not used in dyadic contexts (Forrester 1988). Deixis forms, for example, may be learned through overhearing, and so does understanding of naming practices (Brener 1983;Oshima-Takane 1988).…”

The Influence of Parity on Children's Speech

“…Although, first borns may often receive communication which is focussed about their interests, later born children are likely to spend a considerable amount of time interacting with their siblings or participating in a multi-speaker conversation with both their mother and older sibling(s) (Forrester, 1988(Forrester, , 1992(Forrester, , 1993. It would seem possible that the different experiences of first and later borns have consequences for the development of speech and conversational abilities.…”