Children's and adults' understanding of the locative prepositions 'next to' and 'near to'

Abstract

Previous researchers have implied that young children understand the locative term next to (or beside) in a similar way to adults. Yet, the scant research into the term near to has indicated that children first use this locative in a very different way from adults. However, none of the previous studies have tested the same children's understanding of both terms, and very few studies have included adult groups for comparison. We asked three-year-olds, four-year-olds, six-year-olds and adults to place objects near to or next to other objects, then recorded the distance between these objects. Three- and four-year-olds did not differentiate between the two locatives. Six-year-olds and adults placed objects closer together when instructed with next to than when instructed with near to. There were few developmental differences in subjects' responses to next to, supporting previous theories that young children soon achieve a prototypical understanding of this term. There were marked developmental changes in subjects' responses to near to, confirming the distinction between the two locatives. However, contrary to previous research, there were fewer differences between children's and adults' responses to near to than expected.