Using an Observational Framework to investigate adult language input to young children in a naturalistic environment

Abstract

The correlation between the communicative intent of parents, in terms of their expectation of a response and the response patterns of young children aged 23—25 months during parent—child interactions, was investigated. An Observational Framework was used to code these parameters in interactions between 36 children and their mothers. The children were assigned by cluster analysis to `advanced', `typical' and `delayed' language groups and their responses were coded with respect to the degree of correctness or appropriateness within the interaction. Differences in both the parental response expectations and the children's response patterns across the three clusters are discussed