Intention understanding and partner-sensitive behaviors in young children's peer interactions

Recent research on peer interaction shows that complex, coordinated play emerges around 24 months. Increased understanding of others' intentions has been proposed as a reason for its emergence at this juncture. In this study; we assessed understanding of the intentional structure of human action in children aged 19 to 39 months by, eliciting verbal explanations of observed action. Me hypothesized that more elaborated understanding of intention would be related to more partner-sensitive behaviors during interactions with familiar; same-age peers at home. We found that lc,el of intention understanding predicted types of overtures made, types of objects offered, monitoring partner responses, partner compliance, and types of speech acts addressed to partners. Results are discussed in terms of the contribution of intention understanding to interactive competence, the role of linguistic competence in conceptual development, the effects of context on the production of speech acts and developing theory of mind.