Emerging Cognitive Skills for Writing: Sensitivity to Audience Presence in Five-Through Nine-Year-Olds' Speech

Abstract

A prevailing claim in frequently cited writing research is that children in the early primary grades cannot modify their speech to be verbally informative for an audience that they cannot see or hear. In this study, I test that claim. Ten children between 5 and 9 years old taught 5 magic tricks to absent and present peers through tape-recorded and face-to-face instructions. Children's informative, descriptive, and persuasive speech was compared for absent and present peers, and effects of age, practice, and trick length were assessed. When dictating their instructions for an absent peer, children used morn descriptive words and phrases, talked about more steps, and listed the materials needed for the tricks. However, children were less likely to remark about their absent peer's attitudes or explain for absent peers why steps had to be done in a certain way. These results reveal skills for informative and expository writing—a task that permeates schoolwork—that primary school teachers can build on in young children.