The effect of children's feedback on the speech of the experienced and inexperienced adults with whom they're conversing

Abstract

A study was conducted (a) to determine the relationship between adult-adult speech and adult-child speech when the task is the same and the adult is not the child's mother; (b) to examine the effect of experience with children on the speech directed to children, and (c) to examine the effect of feedback from children on the speech directed to children. The subjects were twenty adult females--ten experienced and ten inexperienced with children. One session was with a child giving normal feedback (MLU = 4.0) and one was with a child giving below-normal feedback (MLU = 2.0). The verbatim transcriptions of all sessions were analyzed for mean length of utterance (MLU), complexity (number of conjunctions), and rate of speech (words/time). The results of the adult-adult-speech versus the adult-child speech was that the subjects differed significantly in the mean length of their utterances and in the complexity of their speech. Because this is a first, non-mother study controlling conversational partners, setting, and task, the findings support the notion of generalization in use of a distinct speech register to children. Results of the analysis of variance of experience with children and feedback variables are as follows: experience with children did not have a significant effect on the length of utterances but experience did have a significant effect on the complexity and rate of speech. A major implication is that certain aspects of the distinct speech register are learned through experience. Feedback did not affect length of utterance or complexity but did have a significant effect on the rate of speech. The indication is that this aspect of the distinct speech register is controlled by the child's speech. The findings of this study support the notion that all adults use a distinct speech register when conversing with children. The findings of this study also support the notion that certain aspects of the distinct speech register are learned through experience. This study demonstrates that certain aspects of the distinct speech register are under stimulus control and can be explained in the context of learning theory.