Development of referential communication skills: How familiarity with a listener affects a speaker's production of redundant messages.

Abstract

In order to be an effective verbal communicator, one needs to give messages that reflect the demands of the task and the needs of one's listener. This study investigated developmentally how sensitive speakers are to the needs of their listeners. Of interest was whether children vary their production of redundant messages (saying more than the minimal necessary to be informative) as a function of sharing common experiences with a listener. First- and fourth-grade speakers gave messages to a fictitious listener (represented by a drawing) who was supposed to be either a stranger or a friend. Both first and fourth graders were more likely to give redundant messages to an unfamiliar listener than to one with whom they shared common experiences. Fourth graders, however, gave a different type of redundant message, one more sensitive to a listener's needs. Fourth graders included several differentiating features in their messages, whereas first graders included both differentiating and nondifferentiating features. Discussion focuses on the development of verbal communicative skills and how studying the production and comprehension of different types of informative messages can increase our understanding of communicative development. To become competent users of language, we need to develop a means of effectively verbally communicating our ideas and needs. Although most researchers agree that communicative skills evolve and change with development, there is controversy over how best to conceptualize the development of communication and what is the nature and type of changes that occur (e.g., Shatz, 1983; Whitehurst& Sonnenschein, 1985).