Conversational Skills

Taking Turns

During the first year of life, and before contentful utterances can be exchanged, infants and caregivers engage in conversation-like exchanges presenting the pattern of alternation of turns. Although mothers work harder than their infants in achieving this pattern, babies participate too: At 3 to 4 months, if the adult's response is not temporally contingent to the baby's turn, the pattern of turn alternation is disrupted and the baby's vocalizations are judged to be less speechlike. By 2 to 3 years of age, toddlers gain skill in managing their interventions, can participate in triadic conversations, and can even intervene appropriately in third-party conversations. At this time, however, they are still slower than older children and adults in intervening after a partner's contribution. Turn taking can remain challenging for older children: In interaction with peers, children need more sophisticated conversational skills to manage interruptions, resolve overlaps, maintain the floor, and keep the conversation going. Preschoolers begin using devices such as initiating a sentence or using follow-up markers like and then, signaling that it is still their turn to talk, but these skills continue to develop at least until adolescence. Moreover, while during the first two to three years, toddlers' conversational moves tend to be either initiations or replies to their partner, with age, children learn to produce turnabouts—turns that have the double role of replying and requiring a response. These are very important in keeping the conversation going and are very frequent in adult speech.

Relatedness and Topic Continuation

In conversation, turns are most often related, one to the content of the other. Content-related exchanges can be initiated by the child or by the partner and can be discontinued after the second turn or present extended thematic continuity. Children start early on to relate to the content of the partner's utterances. During the first year, infants may simply reproduce segments of their partner's utterances, and partners may reproduce infants' vocalizations, giving rise to sequences of turns that lay down the foundation for [Page 109]vocal sharing. Sequences of this kind are also observed in peer interaction among older children. Children repeat each other's utterances as sound play to obtain conversational cohesion and some common ground.

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