Complex spatial language improves from 3 to 5 years: The role of prompting and overhearing in facilitating direction giving using Between and Middle

Abstract

McInnis, M. S. (2017). Complex spatial language improves from 3 to 5 years: The role of prompting and overhearing in facilitating direction giving using between and middle. for help with data collection, transcription, and coding. We also thank the parents and children for their participation and area preschools for their support. Hund, A. M., Bianchi, L. J., Winner, J. F., & Hesson-McInnis, M. S. (2017). Complex spatial language improves from 3 to 5 years: The role of prompting and overhearing in facilitating direction giving using between and middle. Cognitive Development, 43, 170-181.Complex Spatial Language 2 AbstractThe primary goal of this study was to specify age-related improvements in young children's use of the complex spatial terms between and middle in response to prompting and overhearing supports. Three-to 5-year-old children described the location of a mouse hidden between two furniture items in a dollhouse. Three prompting conditions (Between Directive, Middle Directive, Nondirective) were compared with two overhearing conditions (Overhearing Between, Overhearing Middle). Children's use of between and middle was much more frequent in response to directive prompting than in response to nondirective prompting or overhearing. Only 4-5-yearold children showed some evidence of using middle in response to nondirective prompting and overhearing, demonstrating developmental gains in sensitivity to subtle cues. The secondary goal was to assess young children's production and comprehension of between and middle using tasks suitable for young children and parent report checklists. As expected, children's spatial language showed strong developmental improvement and was related to direction-giving performance.

Overheard and understood: A systematic review of children’s learning from overhearing.

“…Tolins et al (2017) found that children learned novel words better from people participating in a naturalistic conversation (e.g., “That’s a dax.” “You’re right, that is a dax.”) than when people spoke without responding directly to one another (e.g., “That’s a dax” said by the first adult followed by a nonverbal acknowledgment, such as a nod, from a second adult). Furthermore, Foster and Hund (2012) and Hund et al (2017) employed a different methodology to test children’s language learning from overhearing. Instead of asking children to match an item with a word, they required children to spontaneously produce words overheard from adult dyads.…”

“…This group of articles shows that the kinds of objective information that children learn from overhearing are not limited to novel words and facts. Although not ubiquitous, children can spontaneously reproduce some of what they overhear (Foster & Hund, 2012; Hund et al, 2017) and apply it to a novel situation (Mills et al, 2012). Furthermore, children recall complex information like directions (Foster & Hund, 2012; Hund et al, 2017; Mills et al, 2012) and narrative events (Tsethlikai & Rogoff, 2013).…”

“…Similar to Foster and Hund (2012) and Hund et al (2017), Mills et al (2012) asked children to apply what they overheard to identify the location of a hidden object. Children successfully did so even in the face of distraction and when the target information was embedded in an unrelated conversation.…”

“…Research has increasingly focused on preschoolage children and older. The majority of studies in this review had preschool-age participants (Boderé & Jaspaert, 2017;Boderé et al, 2024;Foster & Hund, 2012;Foushee & Xu, 2016;Foushee et al, 2021;Hund et al, 2017;Ma et al, 2018;Mills et al, 2012;Qin et al, 2021;Sai et al, 2020;Tolins et al, 2017;Zhao et al, 2020Zhao et al, , 2022. One study involved elementary school students (Sierksma, 2023).…”

“…One study involved elementary school students (Sierksma, 2023). Commensurate with the increase in participant age, these studies often feature more complex overhearing tasks involving conceptual knowledge, comprehension, engagement, or production (Boderé & Jaspaert, 2017;Boderé et al, 2024;Foster & Hund, 2012;Foushee & Xu, 2016;Foushee et al, 2021;Hund et al, 2017;Mills et al, 2012;Tolins et al, 2017). Although more complex tasks are appropriate for older participants, children in these studies begin to show difficulty producing evidence of learning.…”