Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-28T18:47:48.706Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Effects of adult communication behaviors on language-impaired children's verbal output

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Rebecca Moellman-Landa*
Affiliation:
University of Washington
Lesley B. Olswang
Affiliation:
University of Washington
*
Rebecca Moellman-Landa, University of Washington, Department of Speech, and Hearing Sciences, JG-15, 1417 N.B. 42nd Street, Seattle, WA 98195

Abstract

The presence and effect of adult communication behaviors that reportedly facilitate children's verbal output were examined in clinician's and mothers' interaction with seven language-impaired children using a lag sequential analysis. Two language samples were collected from each child, one each by the clinician and mother of the child. Consecutive adult and child utterances were coded to identify adults' sharing of child's focus, child utterance length, adult utterance type, topic maintenance, lexical contingency, and time between utterances. Mothers were found to use facilitative communication behaviors more often than the children. Adults' ‘facilitative’ behaviors had limited effect on children's immediate output. Implications for assessing mothers' input to language-impaired children and eliciting language samples efficiently are discussed.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Barnes, S., Gutfreund, D., & Wells, G. (1983). Characteristics of adult speech which predict children's language development. Journal of Child Language, 10, 6584.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Branston, M. (1979). The effect of increased expansions on the acquisition of semantic structure in young developmentally delayed children: a training study. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Madison.Google Scholar
Brown, R., & Bellugi-Klima, U. (1971). Three processes in the child's acquisition of syntax. In Bar-Adon, A. & Leopold, W. (Eds.), Child language: a book of readings. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Bruner, J. (1974). From communication to language – a psychological perspective. Cognition, 3, 255287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Constable, C. (1983). Creating communicative context. In Winitz, H. (Ed.), For clinicians by clinicians. Baltimore: University Park Press.Google Scholar
Conti-Ramsden, G., & Friel-Patti, S. (1983). Mother's discourse adjustments to language-impaired and non-language-impaired children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 4, 360367.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corsaro, W. (1979). Sociolinguistic patterns in adult–child interactions. In Ochs, E. &8 , Schieffelin (Eds.), Developmental pragmatics. New York: Academic Press, 1979.Google Scholar
Cross, T. (1977). Mothers' speech adjustments: the contribution of selected child listener variables. In Snow, C. E. & Ferguson, C. A. (Eds.), Talking to children: language input and acquisition. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cross, T. (1978). Mothers' speech and its association with the rate of linguistic development in young children. In Waterson, N. & Snow, C. E. (Eds.), The development of communication. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Cross, T. (1981). Parental speech as primary linguistic data. In Dale, P. S. & Ingram, D. (Eds.), Child language: an international perspective. Baltimore: University Park Press.Google Scholar
DePaulo, B., & Bonvillian, J. D. (1978). The effect on language development of the special characteristics of speech addressed to children. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 7, 189211.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Engler, L. F., Hannah, E. P., & Longhurst, T. M. (1973). Linguistic analysis of speech samples: a practical guide for clinicians. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 38, 192204.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Garvey, C. (1979). Contingent queries and their relations in discourse. In Ochs, E. & Schieffelin, B. (Eds.), Developmental pragmatics. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hubbell, R. D. (1977). On facilitating spontaneous talking in young children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 42, 216231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hull, C. & Nie, N. (1977). SPSS update. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Kent, J. (1974). Hop, skip and jump book. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Lee, L. L. (1974). Developmental sentence analysis. Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press.Google Scholar
Lund, N., & Duchan, J. (1983). Assessing children's language in naturalistic contexts. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1983.Google Scholar
MacDonald, J. (1981). Language through conversation: a communication model for language intervention. Parent Child Communication Project, Nisonger Center, the Ohio State University.Google Scholar
MacDonald, J. (1982). Communication strategies for language intervention. In McClowry, D. M., Guilford, A., & Richardson, S. (Eds.), Infant communication: development, assessment and intervention. New York: Grune & Stratton.Google Scholar
McDonald, L., & Pien, D. (1982). Mother conversational behavior as a function of interactional intent. Journal of Child Language, 9, 337358.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Millet, A., & Newhoff, M. (1978). Language disordered children: language disordered mothers? Paper presented to the American Speech and Hearing Association, San Francisco, 1978.Google Scholar
Newport, E., Gleitman, H., & Gleitman, L. (1977). Mother, I'd rather do it myself: some effects and non-effects of maternal speech style. In Snow, & Ferguson, (Eds.), Talking to children. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Olsen-Fulero, L. (1982). Style and stability in mother conversational behavior: a study of individual differences. Journal of Child Language, 9, 543564.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Olswang, L. B., & Carpenter, R. L. (1978). Elicitor effects on the language obtained from young language-impaired children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 43, 7688.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Petersen, G. A., & Sherrod, K. B. (1982). Relationship of maternal language to language development and language delay of children. American Journal of Mental Deficiency, 86, 391398.Google ScholarPubMed
Prutting, C., Gallagher, T., & Mulac, A. (1975). The expressive portion of the NSST compared to a spontaneous language sample. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 40, 4048.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sackett, G. P. (1978) Observing behavior (vol. 2). Baltimore: University Park Press.Google Scholar
Scarry, R. (1963). Great big word book. New York: Golden.Google Scholar
Scherer, N. (1980). The role of mother's expansions in her child's conversation and language learning. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Washington.Google Scholar
Snow, C. E., & Goldfield, B. A. (1983). Turn the page please: situation specific language acquisition. Journal of Child Language, 10, 551569.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
VanKleeck, A., & Frankel, T. (1981). Discourse devices used by language disordered children: a preliminary investigation. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 46, 250257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar