Do Children Communicate Efficiently?
When we speak, we balance between two competing goals: the desire to be understood and the desire to minimize effort, meaning we try not to use unnecessary words. But what about children?
Although language is constrained by grammar and structure, it still allows for considerable flexibility. For example, we can express the same idea concisely or repetitively, omit certain words, or even shorten words (like “fridge” for refrigerator, or “veggies” for vegetables). Our word choices are shaped in part by the need to balance these two goals: saving effort through shorter or simpler expressions, and ensuring we are understood.
Most of the time, we manage this balance efficiently: we tend to shorten or omit words when we believe it won’t affect understanding, and we elaborate or repeat ourselves when we worry we might not be understood. For instance, a noisy environment, saying something surprising, or speaking to someone who doesn’t fully understand the language will usually prompt us to speak in greater detail.
Research shows that speakers across many languages tend show a similar pattern of behavior. Some researchers even suggest that this pattern influences word length: in many languages, the most frequently used words are very short (like a, me, I), while less frequently used words tend to be longer (for example, "experiment").
Until now, studies and theories have focused on how adults use language. We still don’t know whether children also balance effort-saving and clarity in a similar way. In fact, if you think about your last conversation with a child, it’s likely that they manage- or perhaps even experience- these constraints differently.
To explore how children balance these constraints and how this balance changes with development, Dr. Shira Tal from the University of Edinburgh created a game for children in which they communicate using icons. On each turn, the children must explain to a cartoon character which of two images to choose, and they can phrase their message either concisely or with repetition.
To examine whether children will repeat their messages when there is a risk of being misunderstood, some rounds of the game introduced factors that made it harder for the “recipient” to understand the message. For example, in one version, a “fairy” sprayed paint over parts of the messages. Short, concise messages might be entirely obscured, whereas repeated messages could still be understood.
Dr. Tal found that even the youngest participants, just four years old, communicated efficiently: they tended to send repeated messages in rounds where communication was difficult, and concise messages when it was easy to understand. Interestingly, communicative efficiency improved with age. Older children were more likely to shorten messages when possible and expand them when necessary- in other words, their communication patterns became increasingly similar to those observed in adults. This study is an excellent example of the complexity of language acquisition, which involves not only learning vocabulary and grammar rules, but also the ability to choose words based on context and the listener. The research showed that this skill is present even in very young children and continues to improve as they grow.