Child directed speech Flashcards
Definition
the various ways in which a caregiver (unconsciously) adapts their speech in order to aid a child in their language development
Key examples
Higher pitch Repetition Longer pauses Simple sentences Tag questions Diminutives Concrete nouns
Expansion
the caregiver might develop a child’s utterance to make it more grammatically complete
Recast
the grammatically incorrect utterance of a child is spoken back to them but in the correct form
Mitigated imperatives
an instruction given in such a way that it doesn’t appear to be a command but a more gentle suggestion
Jean Berko Gleason (1975)
identified fathers tended to use more commands and teased children whilst mothers tended to use less complex constructions and were more sensitive.
Clarke-Stewart (1970s)
found that children had a larger vocabulary if their mothers talked to them a lot.
Roger Brown
found that children were rarely corrected for grammatical mistakes, though they were for their lexical errors.
