Children's Communicative Interactions Research Articles

Computers in School: Socially Isolating or a Tool to Promote Collaboration?

The article presents a study of interactions among eight-year-old pupils working with computers. The children's communicative interactions in front of the computer are compared with interaction occurring in other kinds of activities. Their verbal and non-verbal interaction has been studied by using videotapes. The children interacted more when they were using the computer; i.e., there are twice as many interactions in front of the computer compared with other activities. Most of this interaction is concerned with problem-solving, and there are hardly any interactions which do not concern the task. The children were also asked to comment on the results. According to them, they only talk about the task because they have a limited time for computer-work and therefore do not want to waste it on things that do not concern the task at hand. A basis for the study is that school education must allow students to develop strategies for learning through interaction, and that interaction and communication are given an increased importance. The discussion addresses the aspect of IT-based learning, and the necessity for a lot of support for teachers when introducing computers in the classroom.

Development of Communicative Competence in Inuit Children: Implications for Speech-Language Pathology

This article describes ethnographic research whose purpose was to document the development of communicative competence in four young Inuit children by studying the role of cultural context in the cammunicative interaction of these children and their caregivers. In doing so, the study looked at Inuit children's communicative interactions in the situational context of their everyday lives. Results show that caregiuer accommodations to Inuit children differ in many ways from what has been reported for white middle-class North Americans. This variation in caregiver-child verbal and non-verbal interaction suggest that assessment and intervention approaches used with and developed to suit North American mainstream children are not appropriate for language-impaired Inuit children and their families. Possibilities for culturally-appropriate changes to these approaches are discussed.

Effect of script knowledge on preschool children's communicative interactions.

Effect of script knowledge on preschool children's communicative interactions.

Effect of script knowledge on preschool children's communicative interactions.

Effect of script knowledge on preschool children's communicative interactions.

Communicative Adjustments during Behavior-Request Episodes among Children at Different Developmental Levels

GURALNICK, MICHAEL J., and PAUL-BROWN, DIANE. Communicative Adjustments during Behavior-Request Episodes among Children at Different Developmental Levels. CHILD DEVELOPMENT, 1984, 55, 911-919. The communicative adjustments of nonhandicapped preschool children addressing developmentally delayed companions were evaluated for their effectiveness and appropriateness through analyses of behavior-request episodes in which initial failure had occurred. Sequences of interactions were tracked within episodes until some form of resolution was achieved. Primary analyses focused on nonhandicapped children's communicative interactions directed to mildly, moderately, and severely delayed as well as to other nonhandicapped children in a dyadic tutorial setting. Assessments of the adaptiveness of the strategies used to obtain compliance, their diversity, and level of success as well as the differential use of specific strategies and combinations of strategies to the 4 companion groups clearly suggested that nonhandicapped children were competent communicators even to children differing widely in developmental level. These results were discussed in terms of their relevance to understanding communicative competence as well as their clinical implications for educational programs that include handicapped and nonhandicapped children.