Despite previous work showing that mothers, fathers, and siblings
provide negative evidence regarding children's grammatical errors, the
role of linguistic input remains controversial. Since most work in this
area has concentrated on negative evidence in the mother–child dyad,
this study extended prior work by comparing mothers', fathers' and
siblings' corrective repetitions to children's errors across different
family settings. Fourteen children (2;3) were videotaped interacting
with their mothers, fathers, and siblings (4;1) in dyad, triad, and tetrad
settings. Analyses revealed that mothers and fathers provided more
corrective repetitions than siblings did. Although the size of the setting
did not differentiate responding, when specific configurations were
examined differences emerged. Analyses of individual families revealed
that all children received feedback following syntax errors. These results
are discussed in terms of current negative evidence research.