Increasingly, children spend much of their day in the care of adults other than their parents, such as child care providers. Consequently, it is important to analyze nonparental adults’ use of strategies suggested to foster language development, such as contingent responsiveness, during interactions with young children. This study examined child caregivers’ contingent responsiveness behaviors that followed toddlers’ communicative attempts within unstructured, semistructured, and structured daycare contexts. Child caregiver behaviors were coded as (a) no response (appropriate), (b) no response (inappropriate), (c) noncontingent response (appropriate), (d) noncontingent response (inappropriate), (e) contingent response and termination of the interaction (appropriate), (f) contingent response and termination of the interaction (inappropriate), and (g) contingent response leading to maintenance of the communicative interaction. Important similarities and differences in child caregivers’ contingent responsiveness behaviors for the three contexts suggest a need to prepare child caregivers to use strategies such as contingent responsiveness across contexts to facilitate language development.
AktarN.DunhamF.DunhamP. J. (1991). Directive interactions and early vocabulary development: The role of joint attentional focus. Journal of Child Language, 18, 41–49.
2.
BarnesS.GutfreundM.SatterlyD.WellsG. (1983). Characteristics of adult speech which predict children’s language development. Journal of Child Language, 10, 65–84.
3.
BloomL. (1993). The transition from infancy to language: Acquiring the power of expression. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
4.
BohannonJ. N.BonvillianJ. D. (2001). Theoretical approaches to language acquisition. In GleasonJ. B. (Ed.), The development of language (5th ed., pp. 254–314). Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
5.
EvansJ. L.CraigH. K. (1992). Language sampling collection and analysis: Interview compared to freeplay assessment contexts. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 35, 343–353.
6.
FarrarM. J. (1990). Discourse and the acquisition of grammatical morphemes. Journal of Child Language, 17, 607–624.
7.
GestS. D.Holland-CovielloR.WelshJ. A.Eicher-CattD. L.GillS. (2006). Language development subcontexts in Head Start classrooms: Distinctive patterns of teacher talk during free play, mealtime, and book reading. Early Education and Development, 17, 293–315.
8.
GirolamettoL. E. (1988). Improving the social-conversational skills of developmentally delayed children: An intervention study. Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders, 53, 156–167.
9.
GirolamettoL.WeitzmanE. (2002). Responsiveness of child care providers in interactions with toddlers and preschoolers. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 33, 268–281.
10.
GirolamettoL.WeitzmanE.GreenburgJ. (2003). Training daycare staff to facilitate children’s language. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 12, 299–311.
11.
GirolamettoL.WeitzmanE.WiigsM.PearceP. S. (1999). The relationship between maternal language measures and language development in toddlers with expressive vocabulary delays. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology, 8, 364–374.
12.
IretonH. (1992). Child Development Inventory. Minneapolis, MN: Behavior Science Systems.
13.
JohnsonJ. O. (2005). Who’s minding the kids? Child care arrangements: Winter 2002 (Household Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau). Retrieved from http://www.census.gov/prod/2005pubs/p70-101.pdf
14.
KaiserA. P.HammeterM. L.OstroskyM. M.FischerR.YoderP.KeeferM. (1996). The effects of teaching parents to use responsive interaction strategies. Topics in Early Childhood Special Education, 16, 375–406.
15.
MacTurkR. H.Meadow-OrlansK. P.KoesterL. S.SpencerP. E. (1993). Social support, motivation, language, and interaction. American Annals of the Deaf, 138, 19–25.
16.
MelhuishE. C.LloydE.MartinS.MooneyA. (1990). Type of childcare at 18 months–II. Relations with cognitive and language development. Journal of Child Psychology, 31, 861–870.
17.
MelhuishE. C.MooneyA.MartinS.LloydE. (1990). Type of childcare at 18 months–I. Differences in interactional experience. Journal of Child Psychology, 31, 849–859.
18.
Noldus Information Technology. (2005). The Observer XT (Version 6.0) [Computer software]. Wageningen, Netherlands: Author.
19.
PaavolaL.KunnariS.MoilanenI. (2005). Maternal responsiveness and infant intentional communication: Implications for the early communicative and linguistic development. Child: Care, Health and Development, 31, 727–735.
20.
Pecyna RhynerP. M.LehrD. H.PudlasK. A. (1990). An analysis of teacher responsiveness to communicative initiations of preschool children with handicaps. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools, 21, 91–97.
21.
RhynerP. M. (2007). An analysis of child caregivers’ language during book sharing with toddler-age children. Communication Disorders Quarterly, 28, 167–178.
22.
Riksen-WalravenJ. M. (1978). Effects of caregiver behavior on habilitation rates and self-efficacy in infants. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 1, 105–130.
23.
RothP. L. (1987). Temporal characteristics of maternal verbal styles. In NelsonK. E.van KleeckA. (Eds.), Children’s language (Vol. 6, pp. 137–159). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
24.
SnowC. E. (1981). Social interaction and language acquisition. In DaleP. S.IngramD. (Eds.), Child language – An International perspective (pp.195–214). Baltimore, MD: University Park Press.
25.
SnowC. E.Midkiff-BorundaS.SmallA.ProctorA. (1984). Therapy as social interaction: Analyzing the contexts for language remediation. Topics in Language Disorders, 4(4), 72–85.
26.
Tamis-LeMondaC. S.BornsteinM. H.BaumwellL. (2001). Maternal responsiveness and children’s achievement of language milestones. Child Development, 72, 748–767.
27.
TiegermanE.SipersteinM. (1984). Individual patterns of interaction in the mother-child dyad: Implications for parent intervention. Topics in Language Disorders, 4(4), 50–61.
28.
TomaselloM.FarrarM. J. (1986). Joint attention and early language. Child Development, 57, 1454–1463.
29.
Van den BoomD. (1994). The influence of temperament and mothering on attachment and exploration: An experimental manipulation of sensitive responsiveness among lower-class mothers with irritable infants. Child Development, 65, 1457–1477.
30.
WeatherbyA. M.RodriguezG. P. (1991). Measurement of communicative intentions in normally developing children during structured and unstructured contexts. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 35, 130–138.
31.
YoderP. J.DavisB. (1990). Do parental questions and topic continuations elicit replies from developmentally delayed children? A sequential analysis. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 33, 563–573.
32.
YoderP. J.WarrenS. F. (1998). Maternal responsivity predicts the prelinguistic communication intervention that facilitates generalized intentional communication. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research, 41, 1207–1219.
33.
YoderP. J.WarrenS. F.McCathrenR.LeewS. V. (1998). Does adult responsivity to child behavior facilitate communication development? In WetherbyA. M.WarrenS. T.ReichleJ. (Eds.), Transitions in prelinguistic communication (Vol. 7 pp. 39–58). Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brooks Publishing.
