Everyday updates: How parents ask about their young children’s lived experiences

Abstract

This research study explores how children respond to solicitations for updates about their (recent) experiences. Instances of parents soliciting updates from their children were collected from over 30 hours of video-recorded co-present family interactions from 20 different American and Canadian families with at least one child between the ages of 3 and 6. Previous research has documented that caregivers of very young children treat them as being able to disclose about events they have experienced (Kidwell, 2011). In building upon the literature on family communication and parent-child interactions as well as the literature on epistemics, this paper explores the concept of “talking about your day” in everyday co-present family interactions, showing three ways in which parents solicit updates from their children: through report solicitations, tracking inquiries, and asking the child to update someone else. Data are in American and Canadian English.