Role‐taking and communication skills in childhood: Why theyaren'trelated and what can be done about it

The social cognitive process of role‐taking has been hypothesized to be one of the chief mechanisms underlying the development of adaptive communication skills. Yet, direct empirical assessments of the relationship between role‐taking and adaptive communication skill have yielded a complex array of inconsistent and conflicting results. The present paper critically reviews the literature on role‐taking and adaptive communication and recommends several modifications in existing theory and research practices. In particular, the paper argues that many of the measures used to study role‐taking and adaptive communication are flawed, that role‐taking and adaptive communication are not unitary constructs, that role‐taking skill is not a sufficient basis for the formulation of adaptive messages, that role‐taking may be more related to some forms of adaptive communication than others, and that research should consider social cognitive processes other than role‐taking in exploring the connection between social perception and adaptive communication.