Getting the timing right: Meaningful variation in children's verbal response times.

Abstract

Adults take turns in conversation with minimal gaps between speakers and almost no vocal overlap. Good conversational timing is a crucial skill all speakers must develop to enter into efficient and successful conversation. Children begin taking turns in conversation from infancy, supported heavily by their caregivers. Research on the acquisition of conversational timing, however, has been limited in scope, overlooking longitudinal data, parent-child interactions, and processing factors contributing to children’s response latencies. This study addresses these issues directly for question-answer pairs over the course of ages 1–3. Several factors were found to affect children’s response latencies in replying to their mothers’ questions, including interlocutor, age, question function, and answer complexity. In contrast to previous findings, children’s timing is, on average, nearly aligned with adult averages before the age of 4. Their timing is at adult ranges for certain early-mastered question functions and answer types. These effects interact with the child’s age, and the developmental trajectory hinges on both changes in the child’s response abilities and also in the kinds of questions the parent asks. Children’s timing and turn-taking abilities are more advanced than has been previously assumed, suggesting that children master turn-projection skills and pragmatically relevant factors early on.