New Work on Parent-Child Communication Provides Insights into the Building Blocks of Conversation

Dr. Margaret Fields-Olivieri, director of the TALK Lab, recently published research in Infant Behavior and Development examined communication sequence that reflect important aspects of parent-toddler conversation. Along with clinical graduate students Kristin Jennings, Crystal Thinzar, and Brianna Halter, Dr. Fields-Olivieri showed that the extent to which toddlers had more effortful control related to a greater likelihood that fathers initiated conversations with them. Negative affectivity, which is another aspect of toddler temperament, as well as parental sensitivity to a child’s cues, complicated these conversational building blocks. This research reflects a lab-wide effort to collect parent-child language data in naturalistic settings. Toddler participants wore an audio recorder for a whole day, which allowed the researchers to examine toddlers’ language as it naturally unfolded with their caregivers.