Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-zlgnt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-31T01:00:59.205Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Representational demands in mothers' talk to preschool children in two contexts: picture book reading and a modelling task*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Angela J. Sorsby  and
Margaret Martlew
Angela J. Sorsby
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
Margaret Martlew*
Affiliation:
University of Sheffield
*
Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Shared book reading is considered to be an influential factor in language and literacy development and has been associated with more complex and demanding forms of tutorial language use. The present study seeks to examine mothers' discourse in joint picture book reading in terms of the level of representational demand which it places on the child, that is the extent to which it requires the child to engage in abstract thought. This was compared with the language used in another interactive, but more product oriented task, modelling a clown using play-doh. Twenty-four mother child dyads (in which the mean age of the children was 4;2) were videotaped while engaged on these tasks and the conversation was analysed for representational demand (levels of abstraction), interactive features and communicative function. The mother's conversation was found to be at a higher level of abstraction in reading than in play-doh modelling. The accuracy of child responses to high level requests for information was superior for reading, while responses to low level requests were similar in both situations. The interactive categories were more utterance-based and less attention-based than in the modelling task.

Information

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 18 , Issue 2 , June 1991 , pp. 373 - 395
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1991

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Footnotes

*

This research was supported by a grant from ESRC. We also wish to thank Dr Adrian Simpson for his statistical advice.

References

REFERENCES

Barnes, S., Gutfreund, M., Satterly, D. & Wells, G. (1983). Characteristics of adult speech which predict children's language development. Journal of Child Language 10, 65–84.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bates, E., Bretherton, I., Beeghly-Smith, M. & McNew, S. (1982). Social bases of language development: a reassessment. In Reese, H. W. (ed.), Advances in child development and behaviour 14. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Blank, M. & Bridger, W. H. (1964). Cross modal transfer in nursery school children. Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology 58, 277–82.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blank, M. & Bridger, W. H. (1966). Deficiencies in verbal labelling in retarded readers. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 36, 840–7.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Blank, M. & Bridger, W. H. (1967). Perceptual abilities and conceptual deficiencies in retarded readers. In Zubin, J. (ed.), Psychopathology of mental development. New York: Grune & Stratton.Google Scholar
Blank, M., Rose, S. A. & Berlin, L. J. (1978 a). The language of learning: the preschool years. New York: Grune & Stratton.Google Scholar
Blank, M., Rose, S. A. & Berlin, L. J. (1978 b). The preschool language assessment instrument: the language of learning in practice. London: Grune & Stratton.Google Scholar
Blank, M. & Solomon, F. (1968). A tutorial language program to develop abstract thinking in socially disadvantaged preschool children. Child Development 39, 47–61.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Conti-Ramsden, G. & Friel-Patti, S. (1987). Situational variability in mother-child conversations. In Nelson, K. E. & van Kleek, A. (eds), Children's language Vol 6. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Cross, T. G. (1977). Mothers' speech adjustments: the contribution of selected child listener variables. In Snow, C. E. & Ferguson, C. A. (eds), Talking to children: language input and acquisition. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Flaugher, J. & Sigel, I. (1980). The parent-child interaction observation schedule. Princeton, NJ: Educational Testing Service.Google Scholar
Hays, W. L. (1988). Statistics (4th edn.). New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.Google Scholar
Kroll, B. M. (1983). Antecedents of individual differences in children's writing attainment. In Kroll, B. M. & Wells, G. (eds), Explorations in the development of writing. Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Masur, E. F. (1982). Cognitive content-of parents' speech to preschoolers. Merrill-Palmer Quarterly 28, 471–84.Google Scholar
Marascuilo, L. A. & McSweeney, M. (1977). Nonparametric and distribution free methods for the social sciences. Monterey: Brooks/Cole.Google Scholar
Moerk, E. L. (1985). Picture book reading by mothers and young children and its impact upon language development. Journal of Pragmatics 9, 547–66.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moerk, E. L. (1986). Environmental factors in early language acquisition. In Whitehurst, G. J. (ed.), Annals of Child Development 3. Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.Google Scholar
Ninio, A. & Bruner, J. (1978). The achievement and antecedents of labelling. Journal of Child Language 5, 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olson, D. R. (1985). Introduction. In Olson, D. R., Terranee, N. & Hildyard, A. (eds), Literacy, language and learning. Cambridge: CUP.Google Scholar
Olson, D. & Hildyard, A. (1983). Writing and literal meaning. In Martlew, M. (ed.), The psychology of written language: developmental and educational perspectives. Chichester: Wiley.Google Scholar
Ratner, N. & Bruner, J. S. (1978). Games, social exchange and the acquisition of language. Journal of Child Language 5, 1–15.Google Scholar
Sigel, I. (1971). Language of the disadvantaged: the distancing hypothesis. In Lavatelli, C. S. (ed.), Language training in early childhood education. Illinois: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Sigel, I. & McGillicuddy-DeLisi, A. V. (1984). Parents as teachers of their children: a distancing behaviour model. In Peligrini, A. & Yawkey, T. (eds), The development of oral and written language in social contexts. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Snow, C. E. (1983). Language and literacy: relationships during the preschool years. Harvard Educational Review 53, 165–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snow, C. E., Aelman-Rup, A., Massing, Y., Jobse, J., Joosten, J. & Vorstyer, J. (1976). Mother's speech in three social classes. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research 5, 1–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Snow, C. E. & Ferguson, C. A. (1977). Talking to children: language input and acquisition. Cambridge: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Snow, C. E. & Goldfield, B. (1983). Turn the page please: situation-specific language acquisition. Journal of Child Language 10, 551–69.Google Scholar
Snow, C. E. & Ninio, A. (1986). The contexts of literacy: what children learn from learning to read books. In Teale, W. H. & Sulzby, E. (eds), Emergent literacy: writing and reading. Norwood, NJ: Ablex.Google Scholar
Snow, C. E., Perlmann, R. & Nathan, D. (1987). Why routines are different: toward a multiple factors model of the relation between input and language acquisition. In Nelson, K. E. & van Kleek, A. (eds), Children's language. Vol.6. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Torranee, N. & Olson, D. (1985). Oral and literate competencies in the early school years. In Olson, D. R., Torrance, N. & Hildyard, A. (eds), Literacy, language and learning: the nature and consequences of reading and writing. New York: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Vygotsky, L. S. (1962). Thought and language. Cambridge: M.I.T. Press.Google Scholar
Wells, G. (1982). Story reading and the development of symbolic skills. Australian Journal of Reading 5, 142–52.Google Scholar
Wells, G. (1983). Language and learning in the early years. Child Development and Care 11, 69–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wells, G. (1985 a). Language, learning and education: selected papers from the Bristol study language at home and at school. Windsor: NFER Nelson.Google Scholar
Wells, G. (1985 b). Preschool literacy related activities and success in school. In Olson, D. R., Torrance, N. & Hildyard, A. (eds), Literacy, language and learning: the nature and consequences of reading and writing. New York: C.U.P.Google Scholar
Werner, H. & Kaplan, B. (1963). Symbol formation. New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Wheeler, P. (1983). Context related changes in mother's speech: joint book reading. Journal of Child Language 10, 259–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Whitehurst, G., Falco, F., Lonigan, C., Fischel, J., DeBaryshe, B., Valdez-Menchaca, M. & Caulfield, M. (1988). Accelerating language development through picture-book reading. Developmental Psychology 24, 552–59.Google Scholar
Wolfe, M. & Dickinson, P. (1985). From oral to written language: transitions in the school years. In Gleason, J. B. (ed.), The development of language. Columbus, OH: Merrill.Google Scholar