The Acquisition of Polish Grammar

Every human language has its grammar. The grammar allows the information involved in speech acts to take on an appropriate form and assures the coherence of statements. Acquisition of grammar rules begins early in a child’s life. In the beginning a child listens to adults and codes the features of language. Some months later a child starts to speak by using the simplest syntactic units (holophrasis). When the syntactic units became more complex, a child starts to use multiword utterances and words as units containing morphemes.
A child’s grammar grows richer and more complicated as the child grows older. It is difficult to precisely describe the acquisition after the third year of life. This is because the development of grammar becomes less linear, and more spatial, as well ass less universal, and more individual

Assessment of vocabulary size – a new tool for testing preschool children

The paper presents the first phase of research aimed at the construction of Picture Vocabulary Test (part I – Comprehension; OTS-R). Development of a mental lexicon is one of the basic components of linguistic and communicative competence (Michnick-Golinkoff et al., 2000; Hall and Waxman, 2004). Vocabulary size affects other aspects of language acquisition e.g. grammar (Dale et al., 2000; Dionne et al., 2003). Presented measure aims at the assessing word comprehension in preschool Polish children. In this phase of research, 351 children (age 2–6) took part in the study. Word comprehension was assessed by a picture choice task. Children were presented with a series of four pictures charts, each containing pictures depicting a target word (noun, verb, or adjective) and three distractors related to the target word phonetically, semantically, and thematically. Results show a gradual increase of vocabulary with age, better understanding of verbs over nous and adjectives, and a greater proportion of semantic errors over the other two types of errors. The study enabled the preparation of a new version of assessment tool which is going to be used in the subsequent phase of the research (norming study).

Parental communications strategies in interaction

Adult orientation in child development reveals the parents’ upbringing concepts and allows predicting the results of refl exive interactions between an adult and a child (Goodnow, Colins 1990, Miller, Davis 1992, Kielar-Turska 1997). Numerous studies point to the significance of the mother’s communication strategy in the child’s development (e.g. Bornstein, Cote 2005; Ozcaliskan, Goldin-Meadow 2005). A correlation between a child’s behaviour and the strategies employed in the adult’s contact with him/her has been confirmed.
The observational study on 99 children aged 2.6 at various stages of linguistic development (developmental norm; with underdeveloped speech; high-achieving) in contact with their mothers has demonstrated that a child’s behaviour leads a mother to employ corresponding strategies. Thus, the mothers of children in normal linguistic and communicative development actually employed developing strategies more often and broadened the child’s attention. They engaged in play with the child and were able to adjust to him/her. In turn, the mothers of children with underdeveloped speech tended to do things for the child by limiting its activities through operative control. Difficulties in adjusting to the child were noted. Finally, the mothers of overdeveloped children frequently did not participate in the child’s activities, granting him/her significantliberty. In play, the mothers broadened the child’s attention or redirected it to other objects.
The results of the study encourage a rethinking of the problem of mutual impact of an adult’s and a child’s behaviour in everyday interaction. They may also serve as a resource for educating parents.

Relation between executive functions and theory of mind in the light of microgenetic approach

Research of numerous international and Polish development psychologists (Carlson and Moses, 2001; Hughes, 1998; Perner and Lang, 2002; Perner, 1998; Skórska, 2004; Putko, 2004; 2008; Kielar-Turska, Białecka-Pikul and Skórska, 2006; Bazak, 2009) point to a relation between executive functions (EF) and a theory of mind (ToM). Character of this relation is subject to research and scientific disputes (Putko, 2008), but the relation remains hypothetical. Presented research concerns the relation between EF and ToM in children aged 3 to 4 i.e. the period during which both functions develop. Microgenetic approach was used to verify the hypothesis. Children with high and low level of EF were selected from 98 children aged between 3;9 and 4;3. In 10 meetings, participants were solving several types of tasks measuring ToM. Subsequently, the measurement of EF was re-performed. Results of the research confi rm the relation between EF and ToM. Besides, microgenetic approach has made it possible to observe that children aged between 3 and 4 characterised by different levels of EF development differ in acquiring abilities of mental states understanding in other people.

Discovering advertisement functions by children. Perceived reality and persuasiveness of advertising

Evolution in perception of advertisement in children takes place in middle and late childhood. The most significant change concerns discovering persuasive function of this form of communication. Considering advertisement as one of the forms of audiovisual transmission we can use the knowledge about the specific character of media understanding by children in order to perform a complex description of these processes in childhood.
The aim of the present study is to determine if discovering of the persuasive function of the advertisement is accompanied by changes of its realism evaluation, which is the principle of creating the genre of each media transmission specimen.
The studied population covered 165 children in five group aged between 4 and 8. The children were individually interviewed about the functions of the advertisement and the perceived reality of the information presented in it.
In the studied period of childhood the study revealed changes of the children’s view of the advertisement communication, which becomes evaluated in connection with discovery of its persuasive function. The change proceeds from perceiving advertisement similarly to educational programmes and cartoons, which educate and entertain, towards perceiving advertisement as a persuasive communication presenting real objects in the context of unreliable information.

Video Interaction Training (VIT) as a therapeutic method supporting socio-emotional development in children with verbal communication disorders

The article aims to present the possibilities of using VIT in therapy of children with verbal communication disorders and their families. VIT relies on basic communication principles i.e. such elements of a relation which secure the basic satisfactory interaction of a child with his/her immediate surroundings. The method consists in an analysis of video recordings with a focus on successful, positive instances of parent-child interaction. A child with verbal communication disorders often experiences negative emotions resulting from the disorder, which can be noted in disturbances of socio-emotional development. The use of the VIT method in therapeutic work with such children might help to reduce the negative emotion-motivation effects of the disorders and support a correct social development.

RECENZJA:

Social Interaction and the Development of Executive Function, Ch. Lewis, J.I.M. Carpendale (eds.), New Direction for Child and Adolescent Development, 2009, 123

Sprawozdanie z VI Konferencji Narracyjnej „10 lat badań narracyjnych – podsumowania, perspektywy”, 17–19 września 2009