Maternal Conversation Style and Communicative Intent of Young Children during Free Play

자유놀이 상황에 나타난 어머니의 대화 양식과 유아의 의사소통 의도

The relationship of communicative intent of infants and the conversation style of mothers were investigated with 20 mothers and their 2- and 3-year old children. They conversed in naturalistic settings while playing with Lego blocks. Cluster analyses revealed 2 maternal styles: a conversation-eliciting and a directive style. Children of conversation-eliciting mothers provided more information than those of directive mothers. Children of directive mother requested more permission than those of conversation-eliciting mothers. Implications of these two maternal styles for children's communicative abilities were discussed.