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Early interaction : a description of conversational turntaking in an atypical child and a group of typical children during bookreading

University of British Columbia

This study explores similarities and differences in turntaking structures in the discourse of a group of typical children and one atypical child. Nineteen normally developing pre-school children and one atypical child were videotaped reading books with their parents. Each of the nineteen parent/child dyads were videotaped at the child's pre-school, and the atypical child (Ben) was videotaped at school both with a trained educator and with his mother. Analyses of the resulting videotapes yielded categorical data on types and structures of turntaking. The utterances of the typical children appeared most often in the category of response. This finding also applied to Ben when he was interacting with his teacher, although when Ben was interacting with his mother the majority of his utterances appeared in the category of imitation. Parents of the typical children used primarily responses, mands and turnabouts. The greatest difference between Ben's mother and the other parents is found in the categories of response and mand which were lower in the case of Ben's mother. It appears that conversational turntaking in a language delayed child is different from the pattern of conversational turntaking in a group of typical children. If indeed the This study explores similarities and differences in turntaking structures in the discourse of a group of typical children and one atypical child. Nineteen normally developing pre-school children and one atypical child were videotaped reading books with their parents. Each of the nineteen parent/child dyads were videotaped at the child's pre-school, and the atypical child (Ben) was videotaped at school both with a trained educator and with his mother. Analyses of the resulting videotapes yielded categorical data on types and structures of turntaking. The utterances of the typical children appeared most often in the category of response. This finding also applied to Ben when he was interacting with his teacher, although when Ben was interacting with his mother the majority of his utterances appeared in the category of imitation. Parents of the typical children used primarily responses, mands and turnabouts. The greatest difference between Ben's mother and the other parents is found in the categories of response and mand which were lower in the case of Ben's mother. It appears that conversational turntaking in a language delayed child is different from the pattern of conversational turntaking in a group of typical children. If indeed the difficulty lies with interaction, or turntaking skills, this may have significant implications for approaches to remediation used with children who are identified as autistic or severely learning disabled.

Text

2010-07-26

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http://hdl.handle.net/2429/26906

Special Education

University of British Columbia

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