Talk presented at the European Conference on Developmental Psychology 2019 in Athens Greece and the International Conference on Environmental Psychology 2019 in Plymouth United Kingdom

1. Natural Environments Improve
Parent-Child Communication
Merideth Gattis
Lauren Anstey, Shim Ze & Josephine Wong
Cardiff University
Thea Cameron-Faulkner& Joanna Melville
University of Manchester

2. Nearly all studies of parent-child communication
have been conducted in indoor environments

3. Natural environments positively influence
psychological processes & states

4. Natural environments are also associated with
positive developmental outcomes for children

5. Most studies investigating the benefits of natural
environments have studied individuals

6. Natural environments may promote a sense of
connection or relatedness

7. Aims
• Examine
the
effects
of
physical
environments
on
parent-­‐child
communica8on
in
a
within-­‐
subjects
experimental
design
• Evaluate
the
hypothesis
that
natural
environments
influence
the
content
of
human
communica8on
• Evaluate
the
hypothesis
that
natural
environments
influence
the
quality
of
human
communica8on

8. Research Site
We
conducted
our
study
in
Bute
Park
in
Cardiff.
Bute
Park
has
extensive
parkland
with
large
trees,
sculptures,
and
a
river
corridor.
Bute
Park
also
has
a
beau8ful
educa8on
centre
that
promotes
wildlife,
hor8culture,
and
history
using
displays,
books,
and
child-­‐focused
craE

9. Procedure
Parents
brought
their
3-­‐
and
4-­‐year-­‐old
children
to
meet
us
at
Bute
Park
for
a
“Treasure
Hunt.”
Parents
and
children
wore
head-­‐mounted
cameras
and
microphones
so
that
we
could
record
what
they
saw
and
their
conversa8on.
All
families
were
recorded
together
inside
the
educa8on
centre
and

10.
Procedure

11. Communication Content
We
measured
communica8on
content
by
evalua8ng
seman8c
categories.
Nature
Content:
The
diversity
of
nature
words.
Seman8c
Categories:
The
diversity
of
nature
words
within
different
categories.

12.
0
2
4
6
8
10
Indoors
Outdoors
Indoors
Outdoors
Mother
Child
%
of
nature
terms
Cameron-­‐Faulkner,
T.,
Macdonald,
R.,
Serratrice,
L.,
Melville,
J.,
&
Ga^s,
M.
(2017).
Plant
yourself
where
language
blooms:
Direct
experience
of
nature
changes
how
parents
and
children
talk
about
nature.
Childhood,
Youth,
and
Environments,
27,
110-­‐124.
Communication Content
Parents
&
children
used
more
diverse
nature
vocabulary
outdoors
in
the
park.

13.
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Indoor
Outdoor
Indoor
Outdoor
Indoor
Outdoor
Animal
Geography
Plant
Nominal
nature
terms
0
2
4
6
8
10
Indoor
Outdoor
Indoor
Outdoor
Indoor
Outdoor
Animal
Geography
Plant
Nominal
nature
terms
Children
Communication Content
Cameron-­‐Faulkner,
T.,
Macdonald,
R.,
Serratrice,
L.,
Melville,
J.,
&
Ga^s,
M.
(2017).
Plant
yourself
where
language
blooms:
Direct
experience
of
nature
changes
how
parents
and
children
talk
about
nature.
Childhood,
Youth,
and
Environments,
27,
110-­‐124.
Adults
Parents
&
children
used
more
plant
vocabulary
outdoors
in
the
park.

14. Communication Quality
We
measured
communica8on
quality
using
known
predictors
of
children’s
long-­‐term
cogni8ve
and
communica8ve
outcomes.
Vocabulary:
The
number
of
different
words.
Talka8veness:
The
number
of
units
of
speech
separated
by
pauses
of
3
seconds
or
more.
Complexity:
The
average
number
of
words
in
a
unit
of
speech
&
vocabulary
diversity.
Connectedness:
The
number
of
connected
conversa8onal
turns
between
parent
and
child.

15. Connected communication = an initiation and all subsequent
logically related turns
P: I can see a dog over there. 1
C: Can I climb that tree? 1
P: What shall we go and look for? 1
C: Erm, frogs. 2
P: Frogs? Where would we find frogs? 3
C: In a pool. 4
P: I don’t know if there is a pool. 5
Connected Communication
Cameron-­‐Faulkner,
T.,
Melville,
J.
&
Ga^s,
M.
(2018).
Responding
to
nature:
Natural
environments
improve
human
communica8on.
Journal
of
Environmental
Psychology,
59,
9-­‐15.

16. Communication Quality
Children
were
more
talka8ve
outdoors
in
the
park.
Caregivers
used
more
gramma8cal
complexity
than
children.
Cameron-­‐Faulkner,
T.,
Melville,
J.
&
Ga^s,
M.
(2018).
Responding
to
nature:
Natural
environments
improve
human
communica8on.
Journal
of
Environmental
Psychology,
59,
9-­‐15.
0
50
100
150
200
250
Indoors
Outdoors
Indoors
Outdoors
Children
Parents
Mean
Number
of
Uierances
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
Indoors
Outdoors
Indoors
Outdoors
Mother
Child
Mean
Length
of
U?erance

17. Communication Quality
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
Indoors
Outdoors
Mean
Length
of
Connected
Turns
Conversa8ons
were
more
responsive
outdoors
in
the
park.
Conversa8ons
were
more
connected
outdoors
in
the
park.
Cameron-­‐Faulkner,
T.,
Melville,
J.
&
Ga^s,
M.
(2018).
Responding
to
nature:
Natural
environments
improve
human
communica8on.
Journal
of
Environmental
Psychology,
59,
9-­‐15.
0
20
40
60
80
Indoor
Outdoor
Indoor
Outdoor
Children
Parents
%
of
Responses
Produced

18. Communication Quality
Why
is
conversa8on
more
connected
in
natural
environments?
We
conducted
exploratory
analyses
to
examine
three
ways
in
which
greater
aien8onal
capacity
might
benefit
conversa8onal
quality:
Parents’
conversa8onal
style
might
be
more
elabora8ve
outdoors;
Joint
aien8on
might
be
more
prevalent
outdoors;
or
Social
aien8on
might
be
more
prevalent
outdoors.

19. Conversational Style
We
evaluated
parents’
conversa8onal
styles
by
dis8nguishing
between
different
ques8on
types.
Elabora8ve
conversa8onal
styles
expand
on
child’s
contribu8ons
and
offer
further
opportunity
for
the
child
to
contribute.
Elabora8ve
conversa8onal
styles
oEen
involve
open
ques8ons
e.g
reques8ng
of
names,
descrip8ons,
ac8ons,
explana8ons,
personal
evalua8ons

20. Parents
asked
more
non-­‐elabora8ve
ques8ons
both
indoors
in
the
educa8on
centre
and
outdoors
in
the
park
Conversational Style

21. Joint Attention

22. Joint Attention
Amount
of
poin8ng
was
similar
indoors
&
outdoors.
Parents
responded
more
to
children’s
poin8ng
indoors
in
the
educa8on
centre.
Indoor
Outdoor
M
M
Children
17.28
(12.39)
12.33
(10.92)
Parents
16.39
(8.60)
14.39
(8.52)

23. Social Attention

24. Social Attention

25. 0
50
100
150
200
250
300
Children
Parent
Social
Aien8on
Score
Indoor
Outdoor
Social Attention
Parents
were
higher
in
social
aien8on
outdoors
p
=
.067
p
=
.001

26. Conclusions
We
inves8gated
how
physical
environments
influence
communica8on.
We
observed
parent-­‐child
communica8on
to
give
us
a
window
onto
language
&
communica8on
as
they
develop.
We
used
an
experimental
design
to
allow
causal
conclusions
about
how
environments
influence
communica8on.

27. Conclusions
Parents
and
children
used
more
diverse
nature
language
outdoors
in
the
park.
Parent-­‐child
conversa8ons
were
more
connected
and
responsive
outdoors
in
the
park.
Parents
were
more
socially
aien8ve
outdoors
in
the
park.
Future
studies
will
examine
the
underlying
mechanisms.

28. Thanks to our funders

29. Thanks to Bute Park & the park staff

30. Thanks to the families who shared their treasures