Girolametto Luigi, Weitzman Elaine
University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
The Hanen Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Lang Speech Hear Serv Sch. 2002 Oct 1;33(4):268-281. doi: 10.1044/0161-1461(2002/022).
This exploratory study investigated the responsive language input of 26 child care providers to young children enrolled in community child care centers.
Three subtypes of responsive interaction strategies were rated and compared across two age groups (toddlers, preschoolers) and two naturalistic contexts (book reading, play dough activity). The toddlers were between 17 and 33 months of age and the preschoolers were between 30 and 53 months of age. Caregiver-child interactions were rated using the Teacher Interaction and Language Rating Scale (Girolametto, Weitzman, & Greenberg, 2000) to provide information about the frequency of responsive language strategies.
Caregivers used similar levels of child-centered and interaction-promoting strategies with both age groups, but used more labelling with toddlers and more topic extensions with preschoolers. The context of the interaction exerted a systematic influence on the caregivers' use of responsive strategies, with the play dough activity providing the most responsive input overall. There was a strong positive relationship between all three subtypes of caregivers' responsiveness and variation in the preschoolers' language productivity. In contrast, only interaction-promoting strategies were positively related to measures of the toddlers' language productivity.
The results of this study suggest that caregivers' responsiveness in group interactions is highly dependent on the context of the interaction and, to a lesser extent, on the language abilities of the children. Future research is required to determine if inservice training can enhance levels of responsiveness and accelerate language learning in young children in group care.
本探索性研究调查了26名儿童保育人员对社区儿童保育中心幼儿的回应性语言输入。
对回应性互动策略的三种亚型在两个年龄组（学步儿童、学龄前儿童）和两种自然情境（阅读图书、玩橡皮泥活动）下进行评分和比较。学步儿童年龄在17至33个月之间，学龄前儿童年龄在30至53个月之间。使用教师互动和语言评定量表（吉罗拉梅托、韦茨曼和格林伯格，2000年）对照顾者与儿童的互动进行评分，以提供有关回应性语言策略频率的信息。
照顾者在两个年龄组中使用以儿童为中心和促进互动策略的水平相似，但对学步儿童使用更多的标签，对学龄前儿童使用更多的话题扩展。互动情境对照顾者回应性策略的使用产生了系统性影响，玩橡皮泥活动总体上提供了最具回应性的输入。照顾者回应性的所有三种亚型与学龄前儿童语言产出的变化之间存在很强的正相关关系。相比之下，只有促进互动策略与学步儿童语言产出的测量指标呈正相关。
本研究结果表明，照顾者在群体互动中的回应性高度依赖于互动情境，在较小程度上依赖于儿童的语言能力。需要未来的研究来确定在职培训是否可以提高回应水平并加速集体照料中幼儿的语言学习。
