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Assessing the Coherence of Parents' Short Narratives Regarding their Child Using the Five-Minute Speech Sample Procedure
Published on: September 19, 2019
Individual differences in children's and parents' generic language.
Susan A Gelman1, Elizabeth A Ware2, Felicia Kleinberg1
1University of Michigan.
Children’s use of generic language, like "dogs bark," is stable and linked to parents’ beliefs about categories. This suggests early language patterns reflect underlying conceptual understanding.
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Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Linguistics
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- Generic language (e.g., "dogs bark") is crucial for understanding categories and aiding child development.
- Previous research has not fully explored the stability and conceptual underpinnings of individual differences in generic language use.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the stability of generic language use across time, contexts, and domains in young children and their parents.
- To examine the relationship between individual differences in generic language and conceptual factors, specifically parental essentialism.
Main Methods:
- Two studies were conducted with 104 parent-child dyads involving 2- and 4-year-old children.
- Data collected included parent and child generic language production rates and measures of parental essentialist beliefs.
Main Results:
- Individual differences in the rate of generic language production were found to be stable over time, across contexts, and across different domains for both children and parents.
- Parents' generic language use significantly correlated with their children's usage.
- Parents' essentialist beliefs showed a significant correlation with both their own and their children's frequency of generic language use.
Conclusions:
- Generic language use in early development demonstrates considerable stability.
- Individual variations in generic language may reflect speakers' conceptual attitudes and beliefs about categories.