The Nature of Teacher Talk in Early Childhood Classrooms and Its Relationship to Children's Play With Objects and Peers

The nature of teacher talk in early childhood classrooms as well as how such talk is related to children's level of play with objects and peers during free play was examined. The purpose of the study was to determine what levels of teacher talk were related to child functioning. Eighty-nine children (42 girls, 47 boys; age range = 31 through 63 months) enrolled in three early childhood programs participated in the study. Results demonstrated that when teachers are within 3 ft of a child, they do not talk to that child 81% of the time and they talk at high levels 18% of the time. Although previous research suggests that high-level teacher talk should be related to high-level play with objects, the results indicated that high-level teacher talk was related to lower levels of play with objects and unrelated to play with peers on the part of the children.