A longitudinal study of gendered vocabulary and communicative action in young children.
Development of children's vocabularies for gender-typed words and communicative actions was investigated longitudinally from 13 to 36 months and in a group of 9.5-month-olds. Vocabularies of gendered words were assessed using lists of adult-rated gender-typed words from the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI; L. Fenson et al., 1994). At 24 to 36 months, girls' and boys' productive vocabularies contained more same-gender-typed words than other-gender-typed words. Receptive vocabulary gender-differential effects were apparent among boys at 18 months. At 13 and 18 months, gender-typed differences were apparent in communicative actions. The research reveals the utility of unobtrusive, nonexperimental measures for assessing gender-related knowledge and behavior in young children.
Stennes
Leif M
LM
Institute of Child Development, 51 East River Road, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455-0345, USA.
Burch
Melissa M
MM
Sen
Maya G
MG
Bauer
Patricia J
PJ
D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D019359:Knowledge; D007802:Language; D007804:Language Development; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D014825:Vocabulary