child-directed speech (CDS) -- a simplified, exaggerated form of speech used when speaking to children and infants. (See list of features on the first page)

Child Language Data Exchange System (CHILDES) -- a system of transcribing and encoding children's interactions, developed at Carnegie Mellon University.

distanced communication -- a challenging form of communication in which a child must learn to distance themselves from the immediate context and consider abstract concepts. This is considered a gateway to advanced cognition.

dyad -- a pair of two individuals, as in mother-child dyad or father-child dyad. Used in reference to conversational settings involving the child and only one parent. Compare to whole-family (below).

episode -- a series of two or more turns

primary parent -- the parent that spends more time with their child. This parent is usually the mother and tends to exhibit more marked features in CDS.

prosody -- linguistic patterns of stress and intonation

scaffolding -- an adult's utterance that provides the lexical and syntactic framework for the child's response, such as "Is this a bear?" rather than "What is this?"

secondary parent -- the parent that spends relatively less time with their child. This parent is usually the father and tends to employ less pronounced CDS.

topic level -- a three-tiered system of categorizing topics of conversation. It consists of three levels

triad -- three individuals; see whole-family scenario

turn -- a string of one or more utterances or gestures separated by input from another speaker

utterance -- a communicative string of words

Wh-question -- an question that uses a pro-form to stand for the item or concept under consideration. In English, this is any question beginning with who, what, when, where, why, or how.

whole-family scenario -- a conversational setting in which the child interacts with both parents. This may be triadic or include siblings or other immediate family members.

Some abbreviations used in this site: