LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION SKILLS AND COMPREHENSION STRATEGIES OF YOUNG CHILDREN
Abstract
To date, language comprehension studies have failed to control for several variables which may contribute to young children's ability to perform requested actions on objects. These variables include the child's previous experience with the objects and the actions s/he has seen associated with them. These variables may assist the child in selecting a response, sometimes giving the impression that s/he comprehends more than s/he actually does. This investigation focused on the contribution of prior experience with associations between objects and actions to the strategies children employ in response to action + object requests, controlling for the children's familiarity with the objects and their names. The subjects were two groups of children, Group I (ages 14 to 16 months) and Group II (ages 20 to 22 months). The children were all taught a set of eight nonsense words serving as names of eight unfamiliar objects, thereby controlling for familiarity and past associations of the objects. Following the teaching of the object names, the children participated in two action sessions in which the eight objects were associated with the actions hit and/or kiss with varying frequencies, or with no action. After the action sessions the children participated in the experimental task. During the experimental task, the children were instructed to hit and kiss eight sets of exemplars of the eight categories. The results of the experimental task revealed that there was a significant difference due to age; the older children demonstrated a greater ability to appropriately respond with the correct action and object. Further results suggested that the strategy of attend-to-object-mentioned in an action + object request was operative in both age groups. By 20 months the children were demonstrating the emergence of the strategy act-on-object-in-way-mentioned. Previous action + object associations, as well as the relative and absolute frequency of these associations played no role in the tendency for children to perform appropriately.
Degree
Ph.D.
Subject Area
Speech therapy
Off-Campus Purdue Users:
To access this dissertation, please log in to our
proxy server.