Talk and task mastery: the importance of socially shared talk during computer-based problem solving

In order to examine more closely the ways that children use socially constructed dialogue to mediate task mastery a hierarchical set of computer tasks were presented in an animated game format (ToonTalk) to three adult/child (US Kindergarten) dyads over five sessions. Transcriptions of the adult-child talk were used to determine (1) the types of discourses utilized by the children (i.e., procedural, conversation, narrative) during problem solving and (2) the relationship of this talk to task mastery. It was found that (1) shared talk was associated with more successful problem solving; (2) socially shared talk did not have to be on task to be beneficial; and (3) procedural discourse was more successfully and frequently used for independent problem solving if first requested by the child. These results highlight the importance of socially shared talk in the development of problem solving strategies even when using computer technology.