Development of self-recognition, personal pronoun use, and pretend play during the 2nd year.
This study examined the relation of visual self-recognition to personal pronoun use and pretend play. For a longitudinal sample (N=66) at the ages when self-recognition was emerging (15, 18, and 21 months), self-recognition was related to personal pronoun use and pretend play such that children showing self-recognition used more personal pronouns and demonstrated more advanced pretend play than did children not showing self-recognition. The finding of a relation among these measures provides additional evidence that in the middle of the 2nd year of life a metarepresentation of self emerges in the human child.
Lewis
Michael
M
Institute for the Study of Child Development, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, New Brunswick, NJ 08903-0019, USA. lewis@umdnj.edu
Ramsay
Douglas
D
D002663:Child Language; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007100:Imitative Behavior; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D010988:Play and Playthings; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D012649:Self Concept; D014743:Videotape Recording; D014796:Visual Perception