Children’s use of verbal and nonverbal feedback during communicative repair: Associations with executive functioning and emotion knowledge

This study explored children’s ability to repair their messages in response to verbal and nonverbal feedback indicating listener confusion. Children (aged 4;0–5;11 [years; months]; N = 70) provided instructions to a listener about a prize location. When children provided an ambiguous message, they received feedback indicating the listener was confused. Children were more likely to repair their messages in response to verbal (but not nonverbal) cues compared to the baseline condition (i.e., a listener pause). Children’s working memory and cognitive flexibility were associated with initial messages. Children with stronger working memory were more likely to attempt to repair their messages. Children’s emotion knowledge and working memory were associated with the informativeness of their repairs. Findings demonstrate children’s ability to repair messages in response to various listener cues and the importance of executive functioning and emotion knowledge for children’s communication.