JCPSLP Vol 17 No 3 2015

Appendix. Definitions and examples of utterance coding

Utterance code

Definition

Example

Child: “Why is doggy barking?” (initiation) Caregiver: “I don’t know, maybe he heard something.” (response)

Successful child initiation

Child initiates a new topic that is unrelated to the caregiver’s conversational turn (or is after a pause) and is successful in eliciting a semantically related response from the caregiver.

Caregiver: “Do you want a bickie?” (initiation) Child: “Yes please.” (response)

Successful parent initiation Caregiver initiates a new topic that is unrelated to the child’s conversational turn (or is after a pause) and is successful in eliciting a semantically related response from the child.

Child: “Look at the cat.” (initiation) Caregiver: “She looks funny doesn’t she?” (response) Child: “Yes she does.” (connected) Child: “Why is doggy barking?” Caregiver: (no response) or Caregiver: “Who is that?” Child: “I’m hungry.”

Connected

An utterance is semantically related to the other interlocutor’s previous conversational turn. The first utterance after a “response” is deemed connected. The caregiver or child’s utterance is directed to the other conversational partner, but does not elicit a semantically related response. Caregiver’s utterance includes a prohibition, threat, or insult. Repeating the child’s intention with increased linguistic or syntactic complexity.

Failed utterance

Behavioural directive

“Stop that.” “I’m taking away your toy.”

Caregiver expansion

Child: “Car.” Caregiver: “Yes, we are going for a drive in the car.”

Note. All definitions were adapted from Ensor and Hughes (2008).

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JCPSLP Volume 17, Number 3 2015

Journal of Clinical Practice in Speech-Language Pathology