Putting multiparty interactions back into multimodal language development studies: A commentary on Karadöller, Sümer, and Özyürek

Karadöller, Sümer, and Özyürek review a significant body of research underscoring the need to approach early communication as an integrated multimodal system shaped by developmental and interactional dynamics. However, most studies focus on dyadic interactions, overlooking the impact of multiparty communicative contexts not only in Indigenous and low-SES communities but also in daycare settings. Drawing on data from 98 children, we illustrate how multimodal coordination in multiparty interactions differs from dyadic exchanges, emphasizing the role of bystander speech and nonverbal cues in language socialization. We argue that a multimodal framework, accounting for diverse interactional formats, is essential for understanding language acquisition across sociocultural settings.