Poster #121 - Pre-school Children’s Ability to Adjust their Teaching for Different Learners

• In Event: 2-163 - Poster Session 08
  In Poster Session: PS 08 Section - Language, Communication

Integrative Statement

An important skill that children learn is how to adjust their interaction style based on the needs of others. Previous research has shown that young children can change their speech style when talking with a younger sibling relative to an adult (Shatz & Gelman, 1973) and respond pro-socially when an adult needs assistance (Warneken, 2015). Moreover, in a teaching context, young children can adjust the amount of information they provide in appropriate ways (Gweon et al., 2014).
This study examines children’s ability to adjust their teaching style as a function of differing needs of learners. A teaching task was used because it provided a natural context in which to highlight the needs of the learner: the goal of the teaching interaction was to transmit knowledge in a usable way for the specific learner. In the current study, children learned how to open special boxes and then taught new adults to do it. Two kinds of adults with distinctive needs served as learners: “Clumsy” adults were easily distracted, and had difficulties performing the steps. “Low-English” adults spoke primarily Spanish and could not understand multi-word instructions in English. These learners were contrasted with “Typical” adults who were physically competent and spoke English natively, but were also ignorant about how to open the boxes.
Children’s teaching skill in this task was assessed by comparing changes in instructional style between the Typical learner and a “needy” learner (a within-subjects manipulation). In addition, comparisons of the nature of the changes made to Clumsy vs Low-English adults were also evaluated (a between-subjects manipulation). True success in this task requires children to not only modify their teaching style relative to the typical case, but also to modify it in a way that addresses the specific needs of the learner.
To date, 30 children have participated (Mean age 4;1, 12 girls). During the study, an experimenter taught the child how to open a target box that required three causally necessary steps (Figure 1). Once the child mastered the task herself, an adult learner entered and the child was asked to teach this adult how to open the box. Learners briefly introduced themselves to make their needs clear. This process was repeated with a new box for a second learner. Every child taught a Typical adult and one kind of Needy adult.
Preliminary results suggest that children were insensitive to the needs of the Clumsy learner – they neither adjusted their use of verbal instruction nor the use of gestures in their instruction relative to Typical learners. By contrast, children used significantly fewer words when instructing the Low English learner relative to the Typical learner (t (13)=4.74, p < .005); however, children’s skill is limited, as they did not significantly increase their use of non-verbal strategies with the Low English learner. Ongoing analyses will consider whether children’s prior experience with different types of individuals or their level of overall empathy (both measured by parent report) predict children’s ability to notice and adapt to the needs of others.

Authors

• Jocelyn Archer, University of Memphis
  Presenting Author

• Alayna Borowy, Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Corrin Moss, Mt Holyoke College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Anna Sies, Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Laura Wagner, Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Katherine Walton, Ohio State University
  Non-Presenting Author