Abstract: Turn-taking, characterized by rapid exchanges, is found in early caregiver-infant interactions across cultures, and is predictive of infant social, cognitive, and language outcomes. What aspects of caregiver behaviors facilitate these back-and-forth interactions and keep them going? How does the timing of caregiver-infant turn-taking differ across different groups, and what do these differences imply about the underlying mechanism of turn-taking? In this talk, I will review findings from both previous studies and my research on caregiver-infant turn-taking.
Vivian Zhang, a visiting PhD student from Cornell University, studies the turn-taking interactions between parents and children. She is interested in investigating the development of turn-taking across various groups, including bilingual families, and children with autism or down syndrome. She aims to understand how turn-taking facilitates child communicative development.