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Developing spatial localization abilities and children's interpretation of where*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 April 2008

ELENA NICOLADIS ,
EDWARD H CORNELL  and
MELISSA GATES
ELENA NICOLADIS*
Affiliation:
University of Alberta
EDWARD H CORNELL
Affiliation:
University of Alberta
MELISSA GATES
Affiliation:
University of Alberta
*
Address for correspondence: Elena Nicoladis, University of Alberta, P-217 Biological Sciences Building, Edmonton AB T6G 2E9, Canada. Tel: (780) 492-0124. Fax: (780) 492-1768. e-mail: elenan@ualberta.ca
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Abstract

Two-year-old children often start asking questions with where. In this study we test whether children understand where to mean route or absolute location and whether the size of the space or elevation made a difference. Previous research has documented developmental changes over the preschool years in children's non-verbal spatial reasoning. Forty-eight children between two and five years of age were interviewed. We asked them to point in response to where questions about an object, rooms on the same floor and on a different floor. All children pointed to the location of the hidden objects. The youngest children pointed to the route to rooms while the oldest children were more likely to point to the location of rooms. With age, the children gradually used more spatial location terms than deictic terms in response to where. These results suggest that children's meaning of where initially differs for different sized spaces and developmental changes reflect non-verbal cognition.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , May 2008 , pp. 269 - 289
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

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Footnotes

*

Natural Science and Engineering Research Council grants to all three authors contributed to funding the research. Elaine Gredanius, Gloria Leung and James Singleton all helped with the testing of the children.

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