title: Assessing communicative intents in young children: low structured observation or elicitation tasks?
abstract: This longitudinal study examines the effectiveness of two different assessment methodologies, low structured observation and structured elicitation tasks, to obtain communicative intents from 35 sensorimotor children. The subjects, 9 months of age at the onset of the study, were observed under the two experimental conditions every 3 months, for a 15-month period. The results reveal differences between the two approaches that vary according to the age of the child and eliciting context. The implications of the findings are examined.
mesh_terms: D002652:Child Behavior; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D003142:Communication; D005069:Evaluation Studies as Topic; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007804:Language Development; D008297:Male; D010988:Play and Playthings; D012107:Research Design