Poster #111 - References to Communication in Parent-Preschooler Co-Constructed Narratives

• In Event: 3-206 - Poster Session 13
  In Poster Session: PS 13 Section - Language, Communication

Integrative Statement

Studies of parent-child co-constructed narratives have revealed several ways that parents may encourage their child’s contributions to shared storytelling, including use of elaborative questions (e.g., Cleveland & Reese, 2005), open-ended prompts (Melzi, 2000), and affirmations (Larkina & Bauer, 2010). There is some evidence in the literature that references to communication (e.g., “tell”, “talk”, “story”) may also facilitate children’s development of narrative and conversation skills. For example, Meline (1985) showed that the prompt of “tell me more” was effective in leading older children (M = 113 months) with language impairments to revise their previous utterances in conversation. Similarly, teaching parents how to request their preschoolers to “tell me more” has been discussed as a way to bolster preschoolers’ narrative skills development (Peterson, Jesso, & McCabe, 1999). References to communication in shared narrative may also facilitate the child’s pragmatic language development, socializing the child in culture-specific expectations for the child during shared storytelling (e.g., Blum-Kulka, 1997; Carmiol & Sparks, 2014; Langellier & Peterson, 2006). In the present study, participants were 32 American mothers and their preschoolers, who were either 3-year-olds (mean age = 42.59 months, SD = 3.43) or 5-year-olds (mean age = 62.17 months, SD = 1.98). One-half of the child sample was male. Mother-child dyads were audiotaped discussing three shared past events. The data were coded for instances and functions of references to communication: requests to collaborate in the narrative, clarification requests, indication of inability or refusal to provide information, repetition of partner’s communication reference, and referencing self or others’ past or present speech acts. The initial coding of the data by the first and second authors identified all references to communication (COM) in the data set, r = .99, using intraclass correlation analysis. Analysis of variance (ANOVA), using child gender and age as independent variables, and mothers’ use of communication references (COM) as a proportion of all mother talk as the dependent variable, revealed a significant main effect of child gender, F (1, 28) = 4.66, p = .04, with mothers of girls including proportionally more COM in the narratives compared to mothers of boys. Results of this study concur with earlier findings regarding child gender differences in parent-child co-constructed narratives (e.g., Fivush, Brotman, Buckner, & Goodman, 2000). Child references to communication in the dataset did not vary significantly as a function of child age or gender (see Table 1). As a secondary analysis, coding of function of each instance of COM was conducted by the first and third authors, with more than one function assigned where appropriate (e.g., requesting collaboration and referencing a past speech act). Percent agreement in this coding was 79%, with all discrepancies then resolved by consensus. The majority (i.e., 77%) of mothers’ use of COM requested the child’s collaboration in the narrative. Overall, the various forms of communication references (e.g., inviting collaboration, attempting conversational repair, modeling language related to speech acts) have implications for interventions focused on children’s narrative and other social communication skills development (Casillas, 2014; Hwa-Froelich, 2015; Volden, 2004).

Authors

• Andrea Angell Zevenbergen, State University of New York at Fredonia
  Presenting Author

• Ewa Haman, University of Warsaw
  Non-Presenting Author

• Jason Andrew Zevenbergen, East Aurora High School
  Non-Presenting Author