This paper presents examples of nonconscious or intuitive parental behaviors in parent-infant dyads in which the parent or child is deaf, discusses these behaviors in terms of the ways they help infants adapt to the postnatal environment and transition from preverbal to verbal development, and examines difficulties in parent-infant interactions.…

This article addresses the critical role of caregiver interaction styles in the language development and treatment of infants/children with developmental disabilities. An approach to measuring and guiding adult interactive styles is proposed and related to research in parent-child development and intervention. The approach examines five…

Develops a multidimensional framework for analyzing an extended physics classroom interaction to understand the resources participants use, alignments they form, and meanings and context they construct. Considers how participants negotiate their positions, focusing on one resistant student and why she remains unconvinced by others' arguments and…

Language used in situations in which speakers cannot rely on shared social, physical, or historical contexts has been referred to as "decontextualized." Many researchers believe that the use of decontextualized language is at the core of literacy--that reading and writing are consummate acts of decontextualization. Somewhat intermediate…

This study investigated associations between infants' prelinguistic communicative behaviors at 9 months and their communication and language performance at 12 and 18 months. The inclusion of both hearing (N=19) and deaf (N=16) infants in the study allowed identification of effects related to the receptive communication modality (vision versus…

Based on the study titled, "Siblings as Communication Trainers for Prelinguistic Infants with Down Syndrome" by Nancy B. Richard, this research abstract reports on a study of six sibling pairs in which the older siblings were 6 to 8 years old and their younger brothers and sisters, who had Down syndrome, were from 16 to 41 months old. The older…

This paper examines issues in establishing an initial social/communicative repertoire with individuals who have severe to profound disabilities, with emphasis on intervention involving the most severely affected. The paper stresses the importance of beginning intervention efforts even before learners show intentional behavior and discrimination of…

This report describes a "culturally contexted" conversation analysis approach to the study of naturally occurring speech in supervisory conferences. The supervisors and teachers were participants in a graduate program for beginning teachers, and the conference's purpose was supervisory evaluation of teachers' classroom performances. Ethnographic…

Employing a variety of perspectives and methodological techniques, the chapters in this book focus on an area of research concerned with analyzing the organization of and relationship between qualities of social cognition and communicative interaction. The 11 chapters of the book discuss the following topics: (1) the development of children's…

Developed a model of individuation in family relationships focused on communicative processes. Expressions of four dimensions of the model (self-esteem, separateness, permeability, and mutuality) were predicted to be positively associated with identity exploration in adolescents. Analysis of observations of families in a Family Interaction Task…

The authors investigated the microlevel processes of collaborative reasoning in heterogeneous peer dyads working on an open-design task in elementary geometry. Special attention was paid to the nature of student social interaction, problem-solving strategies, and mathematical language and how they shape collaborative problem-solving processes.…

The aim of the study was to gain insight into the occurrence of different types of peer interaction and particularly the types of interaction beneficial for learning in different collaborative learning environments. Based on theoretical notions related to collaborative learning and peer interaction, a coding scheme was developed to analyze the…

The purpose of this manual, the culmination of a graduate project begun at the University of Kansas, is to assist individuals with severe, multiple disabilities and their service providers in learning to utilize nonsymbolic behaviors in an expanded, facilitative manner that leads to more consistent and predictable communication functioning. The…

A study assessed the validity of applying the Spitzberg and Cupach dyadic model of communication competence to small group interaction. Twenty-four students, in five task-oriented work groups, completed questionnaires concerning self-competence, alter competence, interaction effectiveness, and other group members' interaction appropriateness. They…

If professionals are to learn how to maximize the positive effects and minimize the negative effects of day care, they must focus their efforts on the ways caregivers interact with children. This research provides a detailed and intimate look at the conditions under which caregivers interact with low income toddlers. Fifty subjects, ages 24 to 30…