INVESTIGADORES
RESCHES Mariela
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Concurrent and longitudinal associations between linguistic and other behavioural measures in young children
Autor/es:
RESCHES, M.
Reunión:
Jornada; I Xornadas dos Investigadores Parga Pondal e Ramón y Cajal de Galicia; 2007
Institución organizadora:
Universidad de Santiago de Compostela
Resumen:
This work explores the concurrent and longitudinal relationships between young children?s linguistic, cognitive and sociocognitive skills. 42 Galician-speaking children were assessed through different linguistic, cognitive and sociocognitive measures when they were 18, 24 and 48 months old. At the first two times, subjects´ vocabulary and grammar skills were assessed through two parent report instruments: the complete and short forms of the Inventario do Desenvolvemento de Habilidades Comunicativas (IDHC)1,2, the Galician version of the Mac Arthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI)3. Simultaneously, a spontaneous speech sample was collected from mother-child interaction during a play session at home. Lexical and grammar measures were derived from this language sample, allowing the establishment of the concurrent and short-term predictive validity of the Galician IDHC. In addition, and in order to identify their possible links with early vocabulary growth, children?s temperament and behavioral styles were also measured. At 48 months old, the long-term predictive validity of parent report and spontaneous language measures of early vocabulary and grammar was obtained. Two standardized measures; one of general cognitive abilities and another, more specific measure of linguistic skills were applied. Also, a mother-child speech sample during a joint-reading situation was collected. Finally, and in the context of an additional and more recent research line, the developmental relationships between language and Theory of Mind (ToM) were analyzed. Results show: 1) Strong and significant correlations between scores obtained through the reduced and the complete IDHC forms. This result indicates that both scales assess language ability in a very similar way2. 2) High and significant indexes of concurrent and short-term validity of the Galician IDHC, as measured through the correlations with spontaneous language measures. These results are in the same line that those obtained with other CDI versions, and suggest that the Galician IDHC is an effective and reliable tool for evaluating language acquisition in the first ages4. 3) Higher predictive value of vocabulary over syntax. 18 months vocabulary size was the only significant predictor of 24 months vocabulary and the most important factor to explain grammar six month later. These results support the ?critical mass hypothesis? as a plausible explanation for the emergence of grammar5. 4) While the intralinguistic relations seemed to be strong and stable throughout time, only a few children?s behavioural styles (love, level of interaction, control) appear to be related with language scores 5) Long-term predictive validity of the Galician IDHC reached moderate and significant values. Specific relations were found between early parent report, spontaneous language measures and later Verbal IQ scores, but not with the Performance IQ. Stronger associations were found between language development at 24 months and receptive and expressive language scores two years later. 6) Although most of these analyses are in progress, our previous research6, among others, suggests that interesting relationships can be expected between earlier and contemporary linguistic measures and 4-year-olds´ ToM.