Referential Communication Skills Research Articles

Mothers’ descriptions of referents are related to children's communicative competence

Describing an entity in a way that leads to its correct identification among similar others is required for successful referential communication. Although many studies investigated children’s language development in relation to the caregiver input, whether children’s referential communication skills are related to their caregivers’ referential input remains understudied. The present study aimed to investigate the relationship between mothers’ referential descriptions and preschool-aged children’s success in describing pictures among competitors. In two separate tasks, where the goal was to describe target pictures among similar others, we assessed mothers’ descriptions targeted for their children and children’s descriptions targeted for the experimenter. Our results revealed that children provided more accurate initial descriptions and needed fewer attempts to describe pictures if their mothers described pictures in fewer attempts and provided clear initial descriptions when talking with their children. These findings suggest that children’s referential descriptions and communicative competence benefit from hearing clear referential descriptions provided by their caregivers. • Children’s communicative competence was linked to how their mothers describe referents for their children. • Children provided more unique initial descriptions if their mothers provided clear initial descriptions. • Communicative repair skills of mothers were related to children’s ability to repair descriptions. • Findings suggest that mothers’ referential descriptions serve as models for young children.

Children’s referential communication skills: The role of cognitive abilities and adult models of speech

Referential communication is effective when speakers describe a specific entity in a way that leads to accurate identification of that referent among competitors. Young children’s initial referential expressions are often inadequate, and this state of miscommunication needs to be repaired in subsequent communicative attempts. Exposure to adults’ effective descriptions of referents is beneficial for children to develop referentially clear initial descriptions. Here, we examined whether adult models of speech also provide benefits for children’s communicative repair behavior. Furthermore, we assessed the relation between children’s cognitive abilities and referential communication skills. We tested 59 children (aged 4 years to 5 years 9 months) on their ability to request specific stickers among similar distractors in a pretest–modeling–posttest design. In the modeling phase, 30 children heard more informative descriptions of stickers with relative clauses (e.g., “you selected the horse that the boy is riding”) and 29 children heard less informative descriptions with demonstrative noun phrases (e.g., “you selected that horse”). In a second session, we measured children’s short-term memory, executive functions (working memory and cognitive flexibility), and theory of mind. Children who heard more informative expressions showed a greater increase in uniquely identifying initial descriptions than children who heard less informative expressions. Hearing more informative expressions did not provide an additional benefit in repairing ambiguous messages, an ability we found to be related to cognitive flexibility and memory. Results indicate that informative language structures that uniquely identify referents provide limited benefits to children for effective communication where children’s short-term memory and executive functions also matter.

Down Syndrome and Referential Communication: Understanding and Production

This study aimed to evaluate the ability of referential communication in subjects with Down Syndrome (DS). We evaluated the possibility that the referential communication is the result of a set of cognitive factors, verbal and nonverbal through the evaluation of relationship between cognitive abilities in individuals with DS and typically developing. In particular, we have identified some critical dimensions of communicative function, such as the referential communication, which means the subject's ability to produce o the listener or messages “referentially oriented”, ie messages that are characterized by “clarity or ambiguity referential”. The referential communication skills, intended both as production (speaker condition) and as understanding (listener condition). Furthermore, has been decided to deepen their understanding through a test that assesses understanding of the text. This choice stems from the need to investigate whether the understanding of a text for individuals with DS could be easier than the understanding of individual messages. It is assumed in fact, that understanding of a text works as a facilitator in coherent mental representation of the text, compared to a single message.

Examination of the relationship between false-belief understanding and referential communication skills

The present study is an attempt to examine the relation between false-belief understanding and referential communication skills. The ability of 76 children aged 5 years to attribute false beliefs to themselves and others was examined with three false-belief tasks. The referential communication skills of the same children were assessed with two tests: (a) the Listening Skills Test (Lloyd et al. 2001) and (b) the Test of Referential Communication (Lloyd et al. 1995), which were adjusted to Greek reality for this purpose. The results showed that there is a link between false-belief understanding and components of referential communication, namely, ability to identify a pictorial referent based on oral messages, ability to comprehend directions on a map, and ability to detect and resolve ambiguity in oral messages. They also revealed that comprehension of directions and ability to detect ambiguity in messages as listener may be good predictors of false-belief competence. The present findings support and expand previous evidence attesting to a link between false-belief understanding and other aspects of language such as syntax, semantics, and pragmatics.

Referential Communication Skills of Children With Williams Syndrome: Understanding When Messages Are Not Adequate

Although children with Williams syndrome have relatively good structural language and concrete vocabulary abilities, they have difficulty with pragmatic aspects of language. To investigate the impact of pragmatic difficulties on listener-role referential communication, we administered a picture placement task designed to measure ability to verbalize message inadequacy to a speaker separated by a barrier. Participants were 57 children with Williams syndrome 6 to 12 years of age. When messages were inadequate, children verbalized that a problem was encountered less than half the time. The likelihood that children would indicate a message was insufficient and that children who verbalized message inadequacy also would effectively communicate the problem varied as a function of type of problem encountered, theory of mind knowledge, receptive vocabulary, and CA.

The referential communication skills of children with imaginary companions

The present study investigated the referential communication skills of children with imaginary companions (ICs). Twenty-two children with ICs aged between 4 and 6 years were compared to 22 children without ICs (NICs). The children were matched for age, gender, birth order, number of siblings, and parental education. All children completed the Test of Referential Communication (Camaioni, Ercolani & Lloyd, 1995). The results showed that the children with ICs performed better than the children without ICs on the speaker component of the task. In particular, the IC children were better able to identify a specific referent to their interlocutor than were the NIC children. Furthermore, the IC children described less redundant features of the target picture than did the NIC children. The children did not differ in the listening comprehension component of the task. Overall, the results suggest that the IC children had a better understanding of their interlocutor's information requirements in conversation. The role of pretend play in the development of communicative competence is discussed in light of these results.

The oral referential communication skills of hearing-impaired children

AbstractThis paper focuses on the oral referential communication skills of hearing-impaired (HI) children. A task based on that used with language impaired children by Leinonen and Letts (1997) was used to assess the speaking and listening skills of 20 HI children (mean age=10;2 years; mean better ear average hearing loss=88.85 dBHL). Their performance was then compared to that of a group of younger normally hearing (NH) children (mean age=6;9 years). The findings were suggestive of a developmental lag in speaking and listening skills in some of the HI group. In addition, significant negative correlations were found between measures of listener performance and scores on the Test for Reception of Grammar (Bishop, 1989), which suggested that the detection and evaluation stages of Ackerman's (1983) model of message disambiguation might be related to linguistic competence. Differential performances within the HI group, and between the HI and NH groups, and the utility of the referential communication task for...

The oral referential communication skills of hearing-impaired children

This paper focuses on the oral referential communication skills of hearing-impaired (HI) children. A task based on that used with language impaired children by Leinonen and Letts (1997) was used to assess the speaking and listening skills of 20 HI children (mean age=10;2 years; mean better ear average hearing loss=88.85 dBHL). Their performance was then compared to that of a group of younger normally hearing (NH) children (mean age=6;9 years). The findings were suggestive of a developmental lag in speaking and listening skills in some of the HI group. In addition, significant negative correlations were found between measures of listener performance and scores on the Test for Reception of Grammar (Bishop, 1989), which suggested that the detection and evaluation stages of Ackerman's (1983) model of message disambiguation might be related to linguistic competence. Differential performances within the HI group, and between the HI and NH groups, and the utility of the referential communication task for teachers, clinicians and researchers are discussed.

Relación entre teoría de la mente y comunicación referencial: una explicación de los déficits pragmáticos en personas con autismo y síndrome de Down [Relationship between theory of mind and referential communication: an explanation of pragmatic deficits

This work focuses on the relationship between the capability of theory of mind and referential communication abilities in a group of High-Functioning Autism and Asperger Syndrome children and adolescents, one group of Down Syndrome children, and another group of children with a normal development, both with the same linguistic development age. A group of referential communication skills (one type of pragmatic abilities) was assessed and compared with abilities of first and second order from theory of mind. The results show that the two groups of children with disorders had difficulties with theory of mind abilities and referential communication, compared with normal control subjects. The contingency analysis between theory of mind abilities and pragmatic abilities, show a different pattern of the relationship between both abilities in the three groups of subjects. The theoretical and practical implications of the results are thoroughly discussed in this paper.

The Early Development of Children's Communication about Nested Spatial Relations

This investigation examined how the nature of the spatial relation influences young children's ability to remember and communicate about nested landmarks. Of particular interest was whether young children are more likely to use a supporting than a proximal landmark to disambiguate identical landmarks (e.g., “it's in the basket on the table” vs. “it's in the basket next to the table”). 3- and 4-year-olds hid objects in a dollhouse and described their locations. Children had to disambiguate the target primary landmark by relating it to a supporting or proximal secondary landmark. Both age groups almost always provided the primary landmark, but 4-year-olds were more likely to provide the secondary landmark than were 3-year-olds. Moreover, children were more successful at providing supporting than proximal secondary landmarks. These results suggest that both referential communication skills and biases in coding location influence children's communication about nested landmarks.

Assessing referential communication skills in the primary school years: A comparative study

Despite more than 25 years of research there is still dispute about the growth curve of referential communication. It is usually maintained that this capacity is in place by 7 years of age but a few studies have uncovered deficits in the later stages of primary school. The issue is important given the role played by verbal information processing in education. This study examined referential communication in Italian and English children at 6 and 9 years, tested individually. Sex and socio‐economic status (SES) were also main variables. A sensitive scoring system allowed the effects of feedback to be examined. The group data showed that 9‐year‐olds were significantly better speakers than 6‐year‐olds and that Italian children produced considerably more redundancy in their descriptions. As listeners, all children handled adequate messages well but with ambiguous messages age, sex and SES were significant main effects. Subject‐by‐subject analysis showed that less than 10 per cent of 6‐year‐olds and only 20 per cent of 9‐year‐olds were consistently able to detect ambiguity in messages, unaided. Cultural differences in the ability to profit from feedback were also revealed. The implications of the results for theoretical positions in referential communication and for the processing of verbal information in the classroom are discussed. It is concluded that there is a strong case for developing a standardized test of speaker and listener skills.

Locating objects and communicating about locations: Organizational differences in children's searching and direction-giving.

Two studies examined spatial organization reflected in searches for objects and descriptions of locations. Six-year-olds and adults retrieved objects hidden on the floors of a house or directed another person about how to retrieve them. Of particular interest was whether children's searches and directions reflected clustering of locations by floors. Six-year-olds' searches were more organized than their directions, but a follow-up study demonstrated that they could produce organized directions if prompted. Analyses of the content and structure of spatial information in directions indicated that children and adults communicated the information in an order of decreasing size of spatial unit. Results are discussed in terms of factors underlying spatially organized searching and directiongiving. Locating objects and places is a practical task that occupies a great deal of everyday human and animal behavior. A major concern of infants and young children, for example, is finding and maintaining proximity to their primary caregiver (Carr, Dabbs, & Carr, 1975). Adults also spend a considerable amount of time searching for valued items such as car keys, checkbooks, and papers containing important pieces of information. Likewise, children and adults frequently are confronted with requests from others to tell them the whereabouts of missing objects. A daily routine in many households, for example, is getting children to describe where they put their shoes or the last place they remember seeing their homework. Clearly, children's skill in searching for missing objects and describing their whereabouts has important practical consequences. Understanding these skills also has theoretical implications for understanding the development of children's referential communication skills and how spatial information is extracted from the surrounding environment and from memory. Children as young as 4 years are capable of spatially organized searches in situations in which there are relatively few locations that are subdivided into a small number of spatial clusters. For example, Wellman, Somerville, Revelle, Haake, and Sophian (1984) found that 4- and 5-year-olds minimized the number of traverses they made between two clusters of loca

Assessing Referential Communication Skills

This article describes a method used to assess the degree to which school-aged children with communication disorders are competent with one aspect of referential communication, an important pragmatic skill. The focus of the article is on the development and use of a nonstandardized assessment probe that could have utility as part of a comprehensive diagnostic test battery for language disorders or for language therapy. Rationales for the use of nonstandardized probes, and results from presentations of the probe to a heterogeneous group of children with diagnosed communication disorders are discussed.

Referential Communication Skills

Referential communication skills involve the ability to provide and understand specific information. Typical skills include giving and following directions, asking questions, and making explanations. These skills are important in classroom discourse. This article outlines some of the critical skills needed in referential communication and then reviews some of the deficits in the referential communication skills of learning-disabled and/or language-impaired children. Finally, suggested therapy procedures based on training studies are provided.

Using a barrier game format to improve children's referential communication skills.

The effectiveness of training referential communication skills with learning-disabled (LD) students was investigated. Forty-two upper elementary-aged children were divided equally into three groups: (a) an LD training group, (b) an LD control group, and (c) a normally achieving training group. The normal group was included as a check on training procedures. All subjects were administered pretests. The measures were a listening task and two speaking tasks. The two training groups were trained in dyads on a referential communication task. Posttests were administered 1 week after training. Results indicated that on the listening task the groups were not significantly different. On both speaking measures, the LD trained group achieved significantly higher scores than did the LD control group. The LD and normally achieving training groups were not significantly different. Follow-up testing 7 months later indicated that significant differences remained between the two LD groups on one of the speaking measures. It is concluded that LD students can benefit from training on referential communication tasks.

Referential Communication Skills of Children with down Syndrome

Referential communication skills were investigated in a group of Down Syndrome (n = 10) and a group of normal (n = 8) subjects matched according to mental age. Referential description tasks and dyadic referential communication tasks were administered to determine measures of communicative competence in referential communication situations. Performance on selected referential description tasks was similar across the two groups. The results showed that although subjects with Down Syndrome have sufficient communication skills to allow successful communicative interchange in dyadic referential communicative situations, they have particular difficulty in encoding information when critical information is located on the verb of the referent.

Referential communication skills of learning disabled/language impaired children

ABSTRACTCommunicative behaviors used in encoding new information were examined. Eighteen learning disabled/language impaired (LD/LI) children were compared with two matched groups of normally developing children: age-mates and language-mates. Behaviors studied included measures of communicative effectiveness, communicative efficiency, verbal output, and referential strategies. LD/LI children did not differ significantly from age-mates. However, they did significantly outperform language-mates. Deficient lexicon and deficient comparison activity hypotheses are discussed in light of the results.

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

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).

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

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

The development of referential communication skills: Some situations in which speakers give redundant messages

Although theorists disagree as to the source of young children's communicative deficits, there is general agreement about there being a developmental increase in the production of informative communications. However, researchers typically have not studied different types of informative messages but have treated what is a category of message types as if it were one type. The problems in doing this become apparent when one considers research on listening skills which indicates that different types of informative messages are effective in different situations. Comparable findings might occur with speaking skills. That is, speakers might vary the type of informative message to be congruent with situational demands. These two studies investigated developmental and contextual changes in the production of redundant messages (including more than the minimal necessary to be informative) a type often used by speakers. First-and fifth-graders in Experiment I described one of several groups of pictures so that a fictitious peer listener would be able to select it. Of interest were the type of redundancy used and whether usage differed as a function of various task factors known to affect listening performance. The data indicated that fifth-graders, but not first-graders, use verbal redundancy in a manner indicating their sensitivity to various task demands. The data from Experiment II suggest that first-graders fail to give redundant messages because they do not realize that redundancy, in certain cases, will help their listeners. Discussion focuses on the importance of considering different types of informative messages within the context of specific task demands.