The purpose of this study was to examine mothers' and fathers' speech and that of their school-age children. Data were gathered for 32 two-parent families with children (16 boys and 16 girls) between 9 and 10 yr. of age. Parents' speech was categorized as either More Directly Controlling Utterances or Less Directly Controlling Utterances. Other verbal behaviors of parents and children included Mean Length of Utterance, Conversational Turns, and Verbal Responsiveness. Sex-of-parent by sex-of-child interactions were significant for Directly Controlling Utterances and for Mean Length of Utterance, Conversational Turns, and Verbal Responsiveness.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
BrownR.A first language: the early stages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univer. Press, 1973.
2.
BrownR.BellugiU.Three processes in the child's acquisition of syntax. Harvard Educ. Rev., 1964, 34, 133–151.
3.
CherryL.LewisM.Mothers and two-year-olds: a study of sex-differentiated aspects of verbal interaction. Developmental Psychol., 1976, 12, 278–282.
4.
Clarke-StewartK. A.And daddy makes three: the father's impact on mother and young child. Child Devel., 1978, 49, 466–478.
5.
FrankelM. T.RollinsH. A.Does mother know best? Mothers and fathers interacting with preschool sons and daughters. Developmental Psychol., 1983, 19, 694–702.
6.
FraserC.RobertsN.Mothers' speech to children of four different ages. Journal of Psycholinguistic Res., 1975, 4, 9–16.
7.
GleasonJ. B.Fathers and other strangers: men's speech to young children. In DatoD. P. (Ed.), Developmental psycholinguistics. Washington, DC: Georgetown Univer. Press, 1975. Pp. 117–129.
8.
GolinkoffR. M.AmesG. J.A comparison of fathers' and mothers' speech with their young children. Child Devel., 1979, 50, 28–32.
9.
LyttonH.Parent-child interaction. New York: Plenum, 1980.
10.
MasurE. F.GleasonJ. B.Parent-child interaction and the acquisition of lexical information during play. Developmental Psychol., 1980, 16, 404–409.
11.
McLaughlinB.SchutzC.WhiteD.Parental speech to five-year-old children in a game-playing situation. Child Develop., 1980, 51, 580–582.
12.
PhillipsJ. R.Syntax and vocabulary of mothers' speech to young children: age and sex comparisons. Child Develop., 1973, 44, 183–185.
RondalJ. A.Fathers' and mothers' speech in early language development. J. Child Language, 1980, 7, 353–369.
15.
SeitzS.StewartC.Imitations and expansions: some developmental aspects of mother-child communications. Developmental Psychol., 1975, 11, 763–768.
16.
SnowC. E.Mothers' speech to children learning language. Child Develop., 1972, 43, 549–565.
17.
SnowC. E.Mothers' speech research: from input to interaction. In SnowC. E.FergusonC. A. (Eds.), Talking to children: language input and acquisition. Cambridge, EngCambridge Univer. Press, 1977. Pp. 45–78.
