RECIPROCAL SEQUENTIAL RELATIONS IN CONVERSATIONS BETWEEN PARENTS AND CHILDREN WITH DEVELOPMENTAL DELAYS

Sequential analysis was used to test several a priori hypotheses in an initial attempt to identify how parents may scaffold the conversation of children with developmental disabilities. Nineteen children with d evelopmental delays in the first stage of language learning (i.e., Bro wn's, 1973, Stage I) conversed with their primary parents in a laborat ory setting. Trained observers coded adult utterances for topic and va rious types of questions and nonquestions. Child utterances were coded for topic. Child topic continuations were more likely to follow adult continuing questions than they were to follow any other type of adult utterance tested. Adult continuing questions and continuing nonquesti ons were more likely to follow child topic continuations than child to pic initiations. Future experimental studies are needed to test whethe r the sequential dependencies identified here represent causal relatio ns. The clinical implications of the results are discussed.