built into a lot of caregiver speech is a type of conversational structure that seems to assign an interactive role to the young child even before he or the become a speaking participant. if we look at an extract from the speech of a mother to her child (aged 1 year 1 month) as if it were a two-party conversation, then this type of structuring becomes apparent. Notice how the mother reacts to the child's actions and vocalizations as if they were turns in the conversation. (The example is from Brunner 1983.)