Young children's conversations with their mothers and fathers: differences in breakdown and repair

The verbal interaction of 12 mothers and 12 fathers with their 19-month-old girls and boys in 2 situations was assessed. In 1 situation, all 3 family members were together, while in the other, each parent was alone with the child. Analyses indicated that when all 3 family members were together, fathers spoke less and took fewer conversational turns than mothers. Other than these significant differences, fathers' speech to their children was not different from mothers' speech on a range of quantitative and qualitative measures.