We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
Keep the Ball Rolling: Sustained Multiturn Conversational Episodes Are Associated With Child Language Ability.
- Authors
Beiting, Molly; Alper, Rebecca M.; Rufan Luo; Hirsh-Pasek, Kathy
- Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between interaction quality and child language ability. We focused on one promising interaction quality indicator--the rate of multiturn conversational episodes. We also explored whether the relationship between rate of single conversational turns and language ability changed when the child's nonverbal behaviors were considered in addition to verbal conversational turns. To limit the potential of socioeconomic status as a confounder, participants included only families living in underresourced households.*** Method: Secondary analyses were conducted using baseline data (N = 41 dyads enrolled, N = 27 analyzed) from a longitudinal study. All families were living in low-income households (i.e., below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level) and 12 were English-Spanish bilingual (15 English-only). Mothers and their children (13 to 27 months) participated in video-recorded play and reading interactions at home. Trained observers transcribed and coded the child's and caregiver's verbal and nonverbal behaviors. Linear regression models examined the relationship between the number of conversational turns and child language ability.*** Results: Child language ability was significantly and positively associated with the number of verbal-nonverbal single turns and multiturn conversational episodes, but not single verbal-only turns.*** Conclusions: For children still acquiring language, it is important to account for nonverbal contributions to conversation. Child language ability was significantly and positively associated only with the conversational turn variables that included the child's nonverbal behaviors. Further investigation is needed to understand whether number of turns within conversational episodes is a better indicator of interaction quality than sheer number of conversational turns. Implications for caregiver-implemented interventions are discussed.
- Subjects
CAREGIVERS; SCIENTIFIC observation; SAMPLE size (Statistics); CONVERSATION; CROSS-sectional method; RESEARCH methodology; EFFECT sizes (Statistics); CHILD behavior; SPEECH evaluation; REGRESSION analysis; INTERVIEWING; LANGUAGE acquisition; SOCIOECONOMIC factors; INFORMED consent (Medical law); INTERPERSONAL relations; VERBAL behavior; DESCRIPTIVE statistics; POVERTY; NONVERBAL communication in children; SECONDARY analysis; LONGITUDINAL method; VIDEO recording
- Publication
American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 2022, Vol 31, Issue 5, p2186
- ISSN
1058-0360
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1044/2022_AJSLP-21-00333