The development of children's telephone communication

The telephone plays an important role in modern life, but little research has been conducted to understand the development of children's telephone communication. This study investigated children's use of the telephone for communicative purposes. Children from 3 to 8 years of age and adults were first asked to solve a simple puzzle, and then encouraged to convey the solution to an adult who was either present (the in-person condition), or in another location at a telephone (the telephone condition). The adequacy of the participants' instructions, as well as referential adaptation, were examined in both conditions. Both age and condition effects, and the interaction between age and condition were found to impact significantly on the adequacy of participants' instructions. Overall, the adequacy of children's instructions increased from an absence of much crucial information at age 3 to 4 years to nearly all required explicit information by age 7 to 8 years. Further, children's instructions were more adequate over the telephone than in person, whereas this difference was less apparent in adults. Both children and adults adapted their instructions by providing more specific referential information in the telephone condition. By contrast, in the in-person condition, children employed visual checking while instructing the listener, suggesting that instructional adequacy and adaptation are not the only criteria for better communication. Children, like adults, communicate differently in the two contexts. Given the increased adequacy of the children's instructions when cued by a telephone, it is speculated that the telephone could serve as an effective educational medium for language facilitation with young children.