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Developmental changes in the incidence and likelihood of simultaneous talk during the first two years: a question of function*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 September 2008

Gordon Elias  and
Jack Broerse
Gordon Elias*
Affiliation:
Griffith University
Jack Broerse*
Affiliation:
University of Queensland
*
Faculty of Education, Griffith University, Nathan, Q 4111, Australia. Email: G.Elias@edn.gu.edu.au;
Department of Psychology, University of Queensland, St Lucia, Q 4072, Australia. Email: Broerse@psych.psy.uq.oz.au.
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Abstract

Global tendencies for the relative absence of covocalization (simul- taneous talk) have been identified in both conversations between adult partners and conversations between mothers and their infants; in each case, the alternating mode in which one partner speaks at a time is predominant. The present investigation examined the timing of the partners' talk in mother-infant engagements over infant age to determine whether: (a) variations occur in the incidence of the alternating mode; and (b) variations occur in the extent to which the alternating mode predominates. Conversations involving a total of 48 mothers and their infants aged from 0;3 to 2;0 were investigated at each of eight infant ages (0;3, 0;6, 0;9, 1;0, 153, 1;6, 1;9 and 2;0). The results indicated that, within a global tendency for the relative absence of covocalization, there was: (a) a curvilinear tendency for the incidence of covocalization to decrease over the first 18 months, and then to increase; and (b) a linear tendency for the extent to which the alternating mode predominates to increase over age. These changes are interpreted as reflecting the facilitative effects of covocalization in the case of young preverbal infants, and the need for the alternating, turn-taking pattern to predominate as mutual comprehension becomes possible in conversations between mothers and their older infants.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 23 , Issue 1 , February 1996 , pp. 201 - 217
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

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Footnotes

[*]

This work was supported by a grant from the Australian Research Council. Our thanks to Anthony Bloesch and John Bain for their helpful comments during the preparation of this paper.

References

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