CHILDES data are transcribed and structured so various CLAN programs can search them. A CHILDES program called CHAT transcribes and structures the files for CLAN analysis. CHAT files always end in the suffix ".cha." An example of CHAT data, from the "Harvard Corpus on Adam" (Brown, 1973), is shown below. The data are divided into lines, and each line begins with a special symbol called a "tier". Tiers tag each line of CHILDES data to aid in data searches.

CHILDES data like the Adam corpus are maintained at http://childes.psy.cmu.edu on the World Wide Web and are updated periodically. However, not all acquisitional data maintained on CHILDES--especially the L2 data--can be searched with the CLAN programs because they are not in CHAT format (Eubank and Earley, 1992).

Brown, R. (1973). A First Language: The Early Stages. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Eubank, L. & K. Earley. (1992). Access to L2 data: The CHILDES archive. Studies in Second Language Acquisition, 14(4):451-452. 

@Begin
@Coding: CHAT September 1987
@Participants: ADA Adam Target_Child, PAU Paul Brother, MOT Mother, URS
Ursula_Bellugi Investigator
@Sex of ADA: Male
@Age of ADA: 3;5.0
@Date: 4-DEC-1963
@Time Duration: 10:30-11:30
*ADA: what's xxx.
*ADA: you will have two.
*MOT: oh # will I?
*ADA: I will be a # scarecrow.
*ADA: xxx Indians.
%act: looking at feather head band
*ADA: dis look like # Indian.
*URS: what are you?
*ADA: dis is a nice Indian xxx.
*URS: yes # it is.
*URS: it was even made by Indians.
*ADA: dis # made +...
*ADA: Indians made dis?
*URS: that's right.
*ADA: why?
*URS: so children can dress up to look like Indians.
*ADA: xxx Indians.
*MOT: what?
*ADA: be [?] some Indians.
*ADA: you're just kidding me.
*ADA: can I play with dat?
*URS: yes.
*ADA: can I open this?
*URS: yes.
*ADA: what are dese?
%exp: assortment of Christmas package labels and stickers
*MOT: what d(o) you think they are?
*ADA: Santa Claus.
%spa: $RES
*MOT: they're not Santa Claus.
*MOT: when you give Christmas presents you write the name of the person to whom you're giving the presents on these.
*ADA: Santa Claus.
*MOT: let me see it.
*MOT: Santa Claus?
*ADA: yes.
%spa: $RES
*MOT: what does he have in his hand?
*ADA: what hands?
%spa: $RES
*ADA: don't know.
*ADA: what he got on his # legs [?]?
*MOT: on his legs?
*ADA: yeah.
%spa: $RES
*MOT: what are those?
*ADA: some boots.
%spa: $RES
*MOT: mmhm.
*ADA: where his sled?
*MOT: sled?
*ADA: yeah.
%spa: $RES
*MOT: oh # I don't know.
*MOT: maybe he parked it some place.
*MOT: he's going around looking to see if he can find some good little boys.
*ADA: Santa Claus boys?
*ADA: what is this?
*MOT: Adam # you didn't ask Urs(u)la if you could open that.
*ADA: can I open it?
%add: Ursula
*URS: I hope so.
*ADA: what is that?
(Adam's data in this file continue for about thirty more pages.)