Whose turn is it? Toddlers already know the answer

13 May 2026
Baby and Child Research turntaking
Researchers at our Baby & Child Research Center (a collaboration between the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (MPI), Radboud University and the Radboudumc) and the University of Chicago, have discovered that children as young as two years old can already predict whose turn it is to speak in a conversation. The findings shed new light on how early children begin mastering the fast-paced rhythm of human interaction.

In everyday conversation, speakers coordinate with remarkable precision, responding quickly while avoiding interruptions. Adults continuously predict when another person will finish speaking and whether a response is expected. The new study shows that toddlers are already developing these conversational prediction skills long before they fully master language.

To investigate this, researchers used eye-tracking technology while children watched animated conversations between two characters. The team examined whether children would look toward the next speaker before the current speaker had finished talking; a sign that they were anticipating a turn transition.

Linguistic cues

The results showed that children from age two onward reliably used linguistic cues to predict who would speak next. For example, toddlers were more likely to anticipate a speaker change after hearing questions containing the pronoun you than after questions containing I. This suggests that even very young children understand how subtle features of language shape conversational expectations.

The study also included children with developmental language disorder (DLD). Although these children were somewhat slower to anticipate turn changes, three-year-olds with DLD still demonstrated clear understanding of when responses were expected in conversation. The findings suggest that conversational prediction abilities emerge robustly even in children facing language challenges.

Knowing when its your turn to speak

The research was led by scientists affiliated with both MPI and Radboud University, including Marisa Casillas, Caroline Rowland, and Imme Lammertink. The project reflects the Baby & Child Research Center’s interdisciplinary approach to understanding how children learn language through social interaction.

By revealing how early children participate in the timing and structure of conversation, the study offers new insight into one of the foundations of human communication: knowing when it is your turn to speak.

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