Exclusion in triads: Can it serve ‘meta‐communicative’ knowledge in 11‐ and 23‐month‐old children?

Abstract

This study examines two requisites of communication, conversational turn taking and understanding of social positions, in 11‐ and 23‐month‐olds. The toddlers were observed in a triadic context so as to eliminate biases due to the alternation inherent in dyads that may lead to overestimation of turn‐taking capacities. To control for variables such as birth order and familial status, the triads were not family members but included two same‐age familiar toddlers and an adult experimenter. The exclusion of one of the toddlers from an ongoing dyadic interaction with the adult and the other child revealed an early mastery of turn taking and role shifting as well as an early understanding of social positions which lead to different communicative behaviour according to the position in the triad. Exclusion in triads is proposed as a paradigm for studying communicative skills and meta‐communicative precursors in very young children.