Pragmatic development Chapter 8. Preschool pragmatic and semantic development

Children learn language within a conversational partner, usually a parent. Even though a child learn to take turns, conversations are short and the number of turns is very limited.

Children engaged in monologues (i.e. self- conversation). They constitute 20-30% of the preschoolers’ speech. 3 years old  use monologues in all types of activities when alone. 4 years old  more selective.  The pre-sleep monologues of many children are rich with songs, sounds and nonsense words, Gradually, those dialogues become more social. The child engages in them years when others are nearby. Later, s/he will share a topic with a listener as when telling a story.  Throughout the preschool, audible monologues decline with age and inaudible self-talk increase.

Conversational context. (Preschoolers are able to turn- taking, maintain a conversation, introduce, shift the and refer to topic.) Child Conversational Skills Young children can introduce a topic but have difficulties maintain that topic beyond two or three turns. By age 3, a child can engage in longer dialogs. With the increase of age, a child gain the ability to maintain a topic. There is increase in the overall talkativeness at around the age of 3.

 Between age 3-4, the child is aware of the social aspects of conversations. In general, utterances are clear, and well-formed.  By age 4, a child uses a form of “motherese” when s/he talks with very young children.  Between age 3-4, a child is aware of the listener’s shared assumptions and as a result uses “elliptical responses.” Elliptical responses omit shared information. For example: Mother: What are you doing? Child: playing. (instead of saying “I am playing”)

 Register It is the different styles of speaking. By age 4,children use motherese when they talk to younger children. Pitch and loudness level are the first variations used by children to donate different roles. There are some gender variations also. Girls tend to speak more, assume more roles, and modify their register more to fit the roles. Politeness is one aspect of register. Preschoolers more commands with other preschoolers and more permission requests (Can I, Please) with older children and adults.

Directives and requests Stop that …………………… (Direct) Could you get the phone? ……(Indirect, conventional) Phew ! It’s hot in here. ………(Indirect, non-conventional) Age 3. use more modal auxiliary verbs in indirect request (e.g. Could you give me …?) Permissive directives (e.g. Can I have …?) Question directives (e.g. Do you have a …?) Age 4. more skilled with indirect forms but still less successful in attracting someone else attention.