Going with the Flow: An Examination of Entrainment in Typically Developing Children

• Published in: Journal of speech, language, and hearing research Vol. 62; no. 10; pp. 3706 - 3713
• Main Authors: Wynn, Camille J, Borrie, Stephanie A, Pope, Kiersten A
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association 01-10-2019
• Subjects: Age Differences; Behavior Change; Children; Early Adolescents; Interaction; Interpersonal Communication; Preadolescents; Speech Communication; Speech Habits; Time
• DOI: 10.1044/2019_JSLHR-S-19-0116
• ISSN: 1092-4388

Purpose: Conversational entrainment is the tendency for individuals to modify their behavior to more closely converge with the behavior of their communication partner and is an important aspect of successful interaction. Evidence of entrainment in adults is robust, yet research regarding its development in children is sparse. Here, we investigate the emergence of entrainment skills in typically developing children. Method: Data were collected from a total of 50 typically developing children between the ages of 5 and 14 years. Children participated in a quasiconversational paradigm with a virtual interlocutor. Speech rate of the interlocutor was digitally manipulated to produce fast and slow speech rate conditions. Results: Data from the fast and slow conditions were compared using linear mixed models. Results indicated that children, regardless of age, did not alter their speech to match the rate of the virtual interlocutor. Conclusions: Findings suggest that entrainment in children may not be as robust as entrainment in adults and therefore not adequately captured with the current experimental paradigm. Modifications to the current paradigm will help identify a methodology sufficiently sensitive to capture the speech alignment phenomenon in children and provide much needed information regarding the typical stages of entrainment development.