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How referential are ‘referential’ children? Relationships between maternal-report and observational measures of vocabulary composition and usage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 February 2009

Julian M. Pine
Julian M. Pine*
Affiliation:
University of Dundee
*
Department of Psychology, University of Dundee, DD1 4HN, Scotland.
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Abstract

This study examines the relationship between maternal-report measures of referential vocabulary and observational measures of referential vocabulary and usage in eight first-born middle-class children at 50 and loo words. The results indicate that although maternal-report measures of vocabulary composition can be reasonably reliable, provided some attempt is made to restrict variation in the number of vocabulary items upon which they are based, such measures tend to exaggerate the relative importance of common nouns for the child in two ways; firstly, in the sense that they reflect differential maternal sensitivity to such word-types in comparison with other less-‘referential’ items; and, secondly, in the sense that they overestimate the extent to which such word-types actually occur in the child's spontaneous speech.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 19 , Issue 1 , February 1992 , pp. 75 - 86
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1992

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References

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