This study piloted CHIPUTIL, an automated tool in CLAN for analysing sequential lexical overlap in parent–child conversations. In a sample of 44 dyads (child age M = 1;9), child spontaneous lexical overlap was positively associated with parent imitations and expansions, across the conversation and within sequential turns. Children were more than twice as likely to respond with lexical overlap when parents first produced an imitation or expansion. These findings offer insight into how lexical overlap may unfold in early conversations. We discuss implications of automated coding and future directions in exploring the role of lexical overlap in children’s language development.

We characterised language samples collected remotely from typically developing three-year-olds by comparing them against independent language samples collected in person from age-matched peers with and without language delays. Forty-eight typically developing, English-learning three-year-olds were administered a picture description task via Zoom. The in-person comparison groups were two sets of independent language samples from age-matched typically developing as well as language-delayed children available on the Child Language Data Exchange System. The findings show that although language samples collected remotely from three-year-olds yield numerically dissimilar lexical and grammatical measures compared to samples collected in person, they still consistently distinguish toddlers with and without language delays.