Mini Investigation - How Child Directed Speech Affects The Child's Response

Introduction

I have chosen to explore child directed speech and how this affects the child's responses. I have analysed data produced by a two year old girl and her Grandmother when speaking at home, provided in video format; 'All The Things'. My hypothesis centres around Skinner’s theory of 'Operant Conditioning' considering 'positive reinforcement' to have an positive affect on a child's behaviour. 

Data Analysis

The data is unreliable, we know very little context beyond the participants relationship, for example, we do not know if they have a close relationship (allowing the child to explore language freely) or if the Grandmother has an awareness of her language (knowledge of CLA) and suits her language accordingly. We also have the observer’s paradox, due to the recording which the Grandmother is aware of throughout and Evie shows some awareness of.

Considering operant conditioning, Evie's behaviour will already have been affected by other adults, especially her parents. We do not know the exact effect of the Grandmother's language and reinforcement on her behaviour, especially if the Grandmother's reinforcement conflicts with other adults (parents). 

Beyond this, we have no comparable data; this could be highly irregular language use for all we know.  

Transcript Analysis

Here is a section of ‘All The Things’ transcript, in which there are examples of positive reinforcement;

E          (inaudible) …my smile

G         hahaha now who else might go in the shower? oh that’s a lovely face Evie (.) are you taking a picture haha of you smiling?

E          ha yes

G         yeah that’s good

E          picture [pɪʧɘ] of me

G         yeah it is a picture of you (.) hahaha that’s a lovely smile (.) right now what else shall we do?

E          that nice

G         that’s lovely

E          (inaudible) …smile

G         it is nice smiling (.) hahaha

E          I smile

G         you are sm-

E          (inaudible)

G         ah you’re smiling a nice smile (.) now who else shall we get from this house?

Evie highlights ‘my smile’ searching for a positive reaction from her Grandma, looking for praise, Grandma recognises this cue and proceeds so; ‘hahaha’ and continues to ask her question, Evie continues to smile though and Grandma understands that this requires a more obvious reaction and praises Evie. Grandma’s laughter and positive language; ‘lovely smiles, lovely, nice smiling’ is positive reinforcement and Evie desires more so she continues to repeat the behaviour; she continues to smile, hoping to gain that same praise from Grandma. This is then repeated a further five times. This is a clear example of Erikson’s ‘operant conditioning’ theory.

Conclusion

This evidence supports the hypothesis, leading to the conclusion that positive reinforcement leads to the repetition of positive behaviour. This also fits with other theories; Freud believed that we’re made up of three parts, the id (ego centric) concerned with its own needs, the ego which understands how to please the id and the super ego that appreciates society’s rules when deciding how to please the id. In this case we see the ego at play, understanding that certain behaviours elicit certain responses, including which behaviours create a response that pleases the id’s need to feel loved. Erik Erikson has theories of development, one named ‘autonomy vs doubt’ which children are said to experience between eighteen months and three years of age. The idea that a child begins to understand their own power to make decisions links with Skinner’s idea in that the children are beginning to understand that different decisions provide different outcomes. At this stage they should be most sensitive to ‘operant conditioning’.

Evaluation

The data pool was limited meaning the results are also limited but general experience with children does support Skinner’s theory. We give praise, generally, to encourage good behaviour and similarly condemn poor behaviour in hope of it not being repeated (negative reinforcement).