The development of communicative perspective-taking during the
preschool years
Susan Graham
Dept. of Psychology
University of Calgary
When learning language….
Children must acquire:– Sounds– Words– Grammar
And– How language is used
to communicate
Our research focus
Communicative perspective-taking
• how children recognize and adapt their communications based on another’s perspective
Children’s consideration of communicative partners’ perspective
Conditions:
• Parent present versus Parent Absent
Question:
• Do children modify their requests when the parent does not know which toy is the “magic toy”?
Children’s consideration of communicative partners’ perspective
Nayer & Graham, 2006
Movie to go here
Children’s consideration of communicative partners’ perspective
Nayer & Graham, 2006
• 3-year-olds offered more information to parents when parent was absent when “magic toy” was identified versus when parent was present.
• Mostly gestures at this stage.
A more demanding task…..
How well do children use another’s perspective to guide their production of messages?
Nilsen & Graham,under review
Production task
05
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Baseline PrivilegedGround
CommonGround
Condition
Percentage of Trials with
Adjective
Overall Conclusions
Developmental emergence of communicative perspective-taking skills:
• 3-year-olds will provide more information to an unknowledgeable partner vs. a knowledgeable partner
• Young 5-year-olds will adjust their requests to fit a listener’s perspective.