My research primarily focuses on Family and Childhood Studies, examining young children's interactions in a variety of cultural contexts. I also study Language and Social Interaction more generally. You can find links to my most recent publications below.
Mandelbaum, J., deSouza, D. K., Wei, W., & Zhan, K. (forthcoming). Micro-moments of social support: Self-service occasioned offers at the family dinner table. Communication Monographs.
Cox, R. B. Jr., deSouza, D. K., Bao, J., Lin, H., Sahbaz, S., Greder, K. K., Larzelere, R. E., Washburn, I. J., Leon-Cartagena, M., & Arredondo-Lopez, A. (2021). Shared language erosion: Rethinking immigrant communication and impacts on youth development. Children, 8, 256-271. https://www.mdpi.com/2227-9067/8/4/256
deSouza, D. K. (2021). Everyday updates: How parents ask about their young children's lived experiences. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1177/0265407520982369
deSouza, D. K. (2020). Getting someone else to play with you: Entering into play in everyday family interactions. International Journal of Play. DOI: 10.1080/21594937.2020.1806496
deSouza, D. K. (2020). How to get someone to play with you: Format differences in recruiting others to participate in family play activities. Language & Communication, 20, 130-140.
Searles, D. K. (2019). What prompts children to tell about their day?: An analysis of child-initiated updating in American and Canadian families. Research on Children and Social Interaction, 3(1-2).
Searles, D. K. & Barriage, S. (2018). "What does curious even mean do you know?" Orientations to word meanings in family interactions. Journal of Pragmatics, 134, 57-69.
Searles, D. K. (2018). ‘Look it Daddy’: Shows in family Facetime calls. Research on Children and Social Interaction, 2(1), 98-119.
Barriage, S., & Searles, D. K. (2015, November). Astronauts and sugar beets: Young girls’ information seeking in family interactions. Paper presented at the 78th Association for Information Science & Technology Annual Meeting, St. Louis, MO. doi:10.1002/pra2.2015.145052010027
Searles, D. K. (2013). “I’m putting myself in a time-out”: Suzi going categorical. Columbia University Working Papers in TESOL & Applied Linguistics, 13(1), 42-43.
Barriage, S. & Searles, D. K. (2019). “Okay okay okay, now the video is on”: An analysis of young children’s orientations to the video camera in recordings of family interactions. Journal of Childhood Studies, 44(3), 18-41.
Barriage, S., & Searles, D. K. (2015, November). Astronauts and sugar beets: Young girls' information seeking in family interaction. Paper presented at the 78th Association for Information Science & Technology Annual Meeting, St. Louis, MO. doi:10.1002/pra2.2015.145052010027
deSouza, D. K., Park, S., Wei, W., Zhan, K., Bolden, G., Hepburn, A., Mandelbaum, J., Mikesell, L., & Potter, J. (2021). The gratitude opportunity space: The timing of expressions of gratitude in object passes. Social Interaction: Video-based studies of human sociality, 4(1). https://tidsskrift.dk/socialinteraction/article/view/122437/171930
deSouza, D. K., Betz, E., Clinkenbeard, M., Morita, E., Shrikant, N., & Tuccio, W. A. (2021). Taking a detour before answering the question: Turn-initial okay in second position in English interaction. Language & Communication, 76, 47-57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.langcom.2020.09.005
Mikesell, L., Bolden, G. B., Mandelbaum, J., Robinson, J. D., Romaniuk, T., Bolaños-Carpio, A., Searles, D., Wei, W., DiDomenico, S., Angell, B. (2017). At the intersection of epistemics and action: Responding with I know. Research on Language & Social Interaction, 50(3), 268-285.