The Effects of Preferred Play Partnership on Communication Adequacy

Summary

This study investigated the effects of preferred play partnership on the conversational competence of preschool children. The treatment groups were comprised of 11 pairs of children who had demonstrated high levels of mutual interaction in freeplay (preferred partners) and 11 pairs who had engaged in low mutual interaction (nonpreferred partners). Interaction scores were derived using Parten's scale of social participation. Each dyad was video recorded in a IS-minute freeplay session. Speech was analyzed using a modification and extension of Garvey and Hogan's coding scheme. As expected, preferred partners generated more utterances and approximately twice as many relevant response-generating utterances as non-preferred partners. With respect to sequences of three or more utterances, preferred partners produced more sequences of relevant utterances (conversation) and more sequences of irrelevant utterances (collective monologue) than nonpreferred partners. In general, preferred partners appeared to use language more effectively in support of their play activities.