Literate discourse and cognitive organization: Some relations between parents' talk and 3-year-olds' thought

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Abstract
Implicit in much work on literate discourse and its consequences is the question of what relation exists between forms of discourse and cognitive organization. The focus of this article is the relation between specific features of literate discourse and paradigmatic organization in children's thought. Nineteen parent–child dyads were videotaped during bookreading when the child was 2½ years old. Three levels of object labels and reference to propositional attitudes were coded in parents' talk during bookreading episodes with their children. Three measures of paradigmatic organization in the child's thought were obtained at age 3½. The features of parents' talk were then correlated with measures of the child's thought. A significant correlation was found between superordinate level labels in parents' talk and all three measures of children's paradigmatic organization, but basic and subordinate level labels were not correlated. Parents' use of cognitive verbs and verbs referring to labeling and interpretation were also correlated with children's paradigmatic organization. The results are interpreted as indicating situation-specific organizational preferences in talk and thought.

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