Early words, multiword utterances and maternal reading strategies as predictors of mastering word inflections in Finnish.
This is the first study to report how children's language skills and mothers' book-reading strategies, measured at 2;0, predict mastery of word inflections at 3;0 and 5;0 in a sample of 66 Finnish children. Three theoretical models were tested on the longitudinal data using path analyses. The testing of the models suggests direct developmental continuity from producing words and multiword utterances on later inflectional growth, but indirect effects of maternal strategies on language outcomes. Moreover, mothers' complex expansions and questions are positively related, whereas labellings and corrections are negatively related, to children's concurrent and subsequent language skills. Finally, vocabulary size relates negatively to maternal attention regulation. When joint attention is easily built up in the dyad, mothers concentrate more on direct reading, which, together with the child's vocabulary, predicts mastery of inflections. In conclusion, the results can be viewed as support for a child-driven view on the future course of language acquisition.
Silvén
Maarit
M
Department of Psychology, University of Turku, Finland. maarit.silven@utu.fi
Ahtola
Annarilla
A
Niemi
Pekka
P
D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D008425:Maternal Behavior; D011932:Reading; D014705:Verbal Behavior; D014706:Verbal Learning; D014825:Vocabulary