Interactional sequences: child–adult collaboration in solving referring problems (Secuencias interlocutivas: colaboración adulto-niño en la solución de problemas referenciales)

ABSTRACT This study’s objective is to analyse repair sequences for referring problems that occur in conversation with young children (two to three years old), which have shown how reference recognition unfolds along a collaborative process. The results reveal that caretakers frame varying repair questions and that the children locally answer the caretakers’ questions, tending to display specific responses for specific repair frames: they either repeat their previous expression or utilize diverse, more informative expressions. Jointly considered, the contributions from children and caretakers display an informational equilibrium characteristic of parallel sequences in adult interactions. The repair sequences clearly attest to the children’s attention to the conversational exchange, the gradual reference optimization in their successive contributions and the delay in conversational progressivity with regard to the primary goal of achieving reference recognition.