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Conversational apprentices: Helping children become competent informants about their own experiences
Author(s) -
Lamb Michael E.,
Brown Deirdre A.
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
british journal of developmental psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.062
H-Index - 75
eISSN - 2044-835X
pISSN - 0261-510X
DOI - 10.1348/026151005x57657
Subject(s) - psychology , interview , developmental psychology , conversation , cognition , apprenticeship , converse , social psychology , communication , linguistics , philosophy , geometry , mathematics , neuroscience , political science , law
Alleged victims of child abuse are often the only sources of information about the crimes, and this places them in the role of experts when conversing about their experiences. Despite developmental deficiencies in memory, cognition, communication skills, and social style, researchers have shown that children's informativeness in such conversations is profoundly shaped by the interviewing practices of their adult interlocutors. We review techniques that degrade children's performance as well as those that help children perform to the best of their abilities, and discuss how these findings have important implications for the ways in which children learn to converse and interact with adults, and for their understanding of the roles played by conversations in information exchange. When adult interviewers conduct developmentally appropriate interviews with children, they help children become competent informants about their experiences.