18 children aged 3, 4, and 5 yr. responded to the same sentence presented both for enactment and for picture choice. Sentences were designed to test the effects on comprehension of event probability, sentence voice, and subject/object animateness. All main effects including that of task were significant. Picture choice was more difficult than enactment especially for the youngest children. Other interactions involving the effects of task suggested that, independent of the actual verbal stimuli presented, the type of task used to assess early comprehension capabilities may lead to different conclusions about which cues are important for young children's understanding of adult speech.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
ChapmanR. S.MillerJ. F.Word order in early two and three word utterances: Does production precede comprehension?Journal of Speech and Hearing Research, 1975, 18, 355–371.
2.
HuttenlocherJ.EisenbergK.StraussS.Comprehension: Relation between perceived actor and logical subject. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 1968, 7, 527–530.
3.
HuttenlocherJ.StraussS.Comprehension of a statement's relation to the situation it describes. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 1968, 7, 300–304.
4.
KramerP. E.FowlesB.KoffE.The effects of sentence reversibility on young children's comprehension of active and passive sentences. Unpublished paper presented to the Eastern Psychological Association, Boston, Mass., 1977.
5.
SlobinD. I.Grammatical transformations and sentence comprehension in childhood and adulthood. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior, 1966, 5, 219–227.
6.
StrohnerH.NelsonK. E.The young child's development of sentence comprehension: Influence of event probability, nonverbal context, syntactic form, and strategies. Child Development, 1974, 45, 567–576.
