Using guided play to train reference skills in early childhood

Reference, namely the skill of using appropriately informative language to identify a referent in communication, has been found to be difficult for children both in production and in comprehension. This is interesting from a purely linguistic perspective, but also from an educational one. Indeed, reference is used in many essential communicative acts, such as requesting objects or understanding specific instructions. However, the topic of reference is understudied in the field of education. The aim of this project is to fill that gap in the literature, by developing a training game which uses guided play to attempt to improve reference skills in 4 to 6-year-olds in a lab context, and then by applying this training game to a school setting.