Individual differences at 20 months: analytic and holistic strategies in language acquisition

Abstract

The study focuses on the language abilities of 30 20-month-old children, using data from two sources: a detailed maternal interview and 90 minutes of videotaped observation. Observed language was coded into the categories used for the interview. Production and comprehension at 28 months (MLU, PPVT and morphology comprehension) were also assessed. Observation and interview data at 20 months were highly intercorrelated. Cluster analyses of both data sets yielded referential, grammatical morpheme and dialogue clusters, providing partial support for the nominal/pronominal and referential/expressive acquisition styles reported in the literature. However, the referential and grammatical morpheme clusters were highly correlated, suggesting that two acquisition strategies are developing in parallel. Only for those children who heavily emphasize one strategy can one speak of a distinctive style. All interview and observation clusters predicted 28-months MLU, but the grammatical morpheme clusters did not predict later performance on a Grammatical Morpheme Test. It is tentatively suggested that holistic processing strategies underlie the pronominal/expressive style.

Variability in the Production of Words Containing Consonant Clusters by Typical 2- and 3-Year-Old Children

“…Some participants exhibited a substantial difference in the number of repeated words in the speech samples over time; for example, P1 repeated 10 or fewer words for the first 5 samples, but 26 words in the final sample. P8 more than doubled the number of repeated words from S1 (14) to S2 (32) and P11 almost halved the number of repeated words from S1 (16) to S2, S3 and S4 (9).…”

Observational and checklist measures of vocabulary composition: what do they mean?

“…Firstly, they provide further confirmation of the validity of checklist measures of vocabulary composition as indices of stylistic variation between children, and show how, with some minor modifications, checklist instruments can be adapted to provide more direct measures of the proportion of unanalysed phrases in children's early vocabularies. Given that the tendency to acquire unanalysed phrases early in vocabulary development has often been seen as a denning feature of a 'non-referential' style (Peters, 1977(Peters, , 1983Bretherton et al, 1983;Bates et al, 1988;Lieven et al, 1992;Pine & Lieven, 1993), this would seem to represent an important extension of the checklist methodology.…”

Cognitive Underpinnings of Narrative Attachment Assessment

“…In addition to the attachment security scores obtained from , scores from the Bayley Test of Infant Development (Bayley, 1969) and a vocabulary checklist (Bretherton, McNew, Snyder, & Bates, 1983) at 25 months were also used in the correlational analyses presented in the Results. The purpose was to assess the discriminant validity of the cognitively based story measures.…”