The effect of self-initiated and other-initiated actions on linguistic performance

Two studies were conducted to determine the effect locus of action had on children's conjunction use and clause ordering. Subjects in the first study were 45 normal children between the ages 3:0 and 5:2. The results of the first study showed that the two contexts in which children performed actions were more facilitating to language performance than the context in which children observed the experimenter perform actions. However, the verbal model which accompanied the two child-initiated action contexts might have contributed to these differences. A second experiment was therefore conducted in which the verbal model was eliminated. No differences in conjunction use or clause ordering were found among contexts in the second study. Thus, by itself, locus of action had little influence on language performance. However, when coupled with the verbal model, which seemed to function as a focusing device, performance was enhanced. It was concluded that child-initiated action contexts which include a verbal instruction are preferred over other-initiated action contexts in which a verbal model is not presented.