Although
early emotional and verbal development are thought to be related, emotional
and verbal parent-toddler communication are often studied separately, and are
frequently measured during brief, semi-structured tasks. Moreover, there is
mixed, indirect evidence as to whether toddler negative emotions may elicit
or disrupt parent-toddler verbal communication. To address these gaps, the
present study used a wearable audio-recording and processing technology,
Language Environment Analysis (LENA; Xu, Yapanel, & Gray, 2009), to
sample full-day communication between twenty-five parents and their toddlers
(12–23 months). We examined the extent to which toddler vocal negative
emotion expressions (“cries”), relative to toddler (pre)-verbal vocalizations
or adult speech, initiated, occurred within, or terminated parent-toddler
conversation. We found that most (60%) toddler cries were involved in
parent-toddler conversation. Toddler cries were unlikely to initiate
conversations and, unexpectedly, were unlikely to terminate conversation.
Conversations were most often initiated by toddler vocalizations and
terminated by adult speech. Findings highlight the importance of measuring
both emotional and verbal aspects of parent-toddler communication and the
benefit of using sampling techniques that capture communication processes as
they unfold in daily life.
