Young Children's Communication Skills in Triads

The purpose of this study was to investigate children's nonverbal intrusions into an ongoing interaction. The subjects were 60 children, divided into groups of 11, 16, and 23 months of age. Two same-aged peers were observed together with an adult experimenter. Both children and adult behaviours...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:International journal of behavioral development 1995-06, Vol.18 (2), p.227-242
Main Authors: Tremblay-Leveau, Hélène, Nadel, Jacqueline
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Biological and medical sciences
Child development
Communication skills
Developmental psychology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Infants
Newborn. Infant
Nonverbal Communication
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Social Behavior
Social Interaction
Triads
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The purpose of this study was to investigate children's nonverbal intrusions into an ongoing interaction. The subjects were 60 children, divided into groups of 11, 16, and 23 months of age. Two same-aged peers were observed together with an adult experimenter. Both children and adult behaviours were recorded with two cameras. Coding of behaviours proceeded in four steps in order to sort object oriented and socially directed behaviours specifying their social aim and their temporal organisation. The results show that as early as 11 months, children produce acts directed to one as opposed to two partners. These single and double oriented behaviours are used for initiations as well as for responses. As opposed to dyadic interactions, the temporal contiguity of double oriented behaviours enhancing triadic interactions increased during the second year, and at 23 months children were more likely to select a new referent to introduce a triadic interaction than a dyadic interaction.
ISSN:0165-0254
1464-0651
DOI:10.1177/016502549501800203