This study reveals the important role of adult input in the development of children's communicative competence. The results of the investigation show that the mothers asked more questions that were meant to gauge the children's linguistic and cognitive development. The mothers also used a lot of communication techniques and strategies that help the children develop their pragmatic skills such as turn-taking, initiating, maintaining and closing conversations, noticing and responding to non-verbal features of the interaction, observing conversational principles and knowing how to respond to questions.
In general, the children's responses expressed the representational, expressive, social, and tutorial functions of language. A big percentage of the children's responses were found to be representational--that is to say, the use of language to talk about things in the environment. As the children became more mature conversational partners, they moved from one functional mode to another depending on their intents, moods, the behavior of their interlocutors, and some other factors in the environment.
The children's responses exhibited four forms--the fill-in, elliptical, mixed forms,and the complete forms. The forms served pragmatic functions as they indicated the mood, attitudes,and intentions of the children.
Finally, the study reveals that the children were able to adopt conversational strategies that helped them stay focused in the conversation and repair any impending breakdown in communication. These conversational strategies included various kinds of repetition, contingent queries, and gestural support.
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