Preschool children's conversation intrusions: Behavior and metapragmatic knowledge

Abstract

The aim of this study was to determine (a) whether preschool children behave differently when making requests to talking and silent adults, and (b) what they know about conversation intrusions. Forty‐five children (3 years to 5 years, 6 months) participated in an art project. To complete the project, the child had to ask two adults (talking or silent) for supplies. The children were also tested for judgments about making a request of a talking versus a silent addressee. Younger children took longer to make their requests of silent adults and older children took longer to address talking adults. About half of the older children waited for a break in the conversation to make their request. Younger children did not differentiate between a talking and silent addressee in their metapragmatic responses, while older children did. However, children's responses on the metapragmatic task did not predict their behavior in the actual request task.