The development of communicative perspective-taking during the preschool years Susan Graham Dept. of Psychology University of Calgary

When learning language…. Children must acquire: –Sounds –Words –Grammar And –How language is used to communicate

Our research focus Communicative perspective-taking how children recognize and adapt their communications based on another’s perspective

Children’s consideration of communicative partners’ perspective Nayer & Graham, 2006

Children’s consideration of communicative partners’ perspective Conditions: Parent present versus Parent Absent Question: Do children modify their requests when the parent does not know which toy is the “magic toy”?

Children’s consideration of communicative partners’ perspective Nayer & Graham, 2006 Movie to go here

Children’s consideration of communicative partners’ perspective Nayer & Graham, year-olds offered more information to parents when parent was absent when “magic toy” was identified versus when parent was present. Mostly gestures at this stage.

A more demanding task….. How well do children use another’s perspective to guide their production of messages? Nilsen & Graham,under review

Making requests “Ask Hayli to pick up this one”

Conditions Common Ground Condition Privileged Ground Condition Baseline Condition

Production task

Overall Conclusions Developmental emergence of communicative perspective-taking skills: 3-year-olds will provide more information to an unknowledgeable partner vs. a knowledgeable partner Young 5-year-olds will adjust their requests to fit a listener’s perspective.

Collaborators: Samantha Nayer Liz Nilsen, University of Waterloo Members of the Language and Cognitive Development Lab Thank you