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Mothers' use of fantasy in speech to young children*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Robert D. Kavanaugh ,
Sue Whittington  and
Mark J. Cerbone
Robert D. Kavanaugh
Affiliation:
Williams College
Sue Whittington
Affiliation:
Williams College
Mark J. Cerbone
Affiliation:
Williams College
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Abstract

This study examined mothers' use of fantasy in speech to young children. Observations of mothers in free-play interactions with their 12-to 27-month-old children formed the basis for an analysis of the frequency and type of fantasy relationships encoded in maternal speech. Results suggested that fantasy speech to roughly year-old children was relatively infrequent and restricted to descriptions of the feelings, actions, and functions of animate and inanimate objects. Speech to 1½-year-olds encoded essentially the same fantasy characteristics, but mothers of children in this age group introduced more distinct instances in their fantasy talk. A more notable change occurred in the fantasy utterances directed to 2-year-olds. Mothers of these children talked about non-existent imaginary objects, and often asked the child to extend a play episode by providing a new fantasy element. These findings were discussed in terms of the nature and function of the dyadic interactions in which mothers' fantasy talk occurred.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 10 , Issue 1 , February 1983 , pp. 45 - 55
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1983

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Footnotes

[*]

Portions of this paper were presented at the meetings of the Society for Research in Child Development, Boston, April 1981. Address for correspondence: Robert D. Kavanaugh, Department of Psychology, Williams College, Williamstown, MA 01267.

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