Episodes of pragmatic behaviors in parent-child interactions

Pragmatic behavior, or the socially appropriate use of language, is important to parents of preschool children. In 1994 Becker noted several questions that still remain to be answered, including issues such as developmental changes in the pragmatic teaching of preschoolers and whether there are differences in the parents' goals for pragmatic teaching in private versus public interactions. The present study addressed these issues. 29 parent-child dyads were videotaped for 30 min. Transcripts were coded for episodes of pragmatic behavior that occurred in the dyadic interaction. Analysis indicated that pragmatic behaviors across the age groups largely focused on issues of what to say and how to say it. The teaching and use of pragmatic behaviors in public interactions is relatively important to parents of children between 2 1/2 and 4 years. The spontaneous use of pragmatic behaviors was the most common form of input (78% overall). Pragmatic behaviors were more often prompted with direct, as opposed to indirect, comments. Discussion focuses on a content analysis of the direct versus indirect prompts in the different age groups.