Conversational structure and topic performance in mother-child interaction.

Discourse participation and topic performance in mother-child interaction were examined. Thirty mother-child dyads, with children ranging in age from 2:10 to 6:3 (years:months), were videotaped in a 10-min free play situation. The interactions were analyzed using several measures of conversational participation and topic including discourse types, turn transitions, and maintenance. Results indicated that children in this age group shared similar characteristics of conversational participation with their mothers. However, the mothers of these children, like mothers of sensorimotor level children, maintained their role as facilitators of the structure and cohesiveness of discourse. Although the children, in general, were more discontinuous in their discourse than their mothers, they exhibited greater topic maintenance and use of shading, a more sophisticated conversational strategy, with increasing age and language abilities.