Summary
The special features revealea throughout the child's development in the comprehension and production of the spatial relationships markers devant and derrière were studied using two tasks, given to 192 children from 3 to 10 years old, and to a control group of 50 adults. In the first task (comprehension), the children were requested to place toys according with intructions devant and derrière given verbally by the experimenter. The second task (production) involved the description of several spatial configurations set up by the experimenter using toys. The results show that while comprehension of the two lexemes comes early, the meaning conferred on them by adults (production) is mastered by graduai adjustments starting from special meanings which reflect the cognitive development of the corresponding notion.
Summary : Acquisition of markers concerning spacial relations.
The acquisition of markers concerning spatial relations by 6- to 14-year-old children suffering from moderate mental deficiency has been studied within the framework concerning lexical psychosemantics elaborated by Piérart (1975a). Some of the children had been born severely premature, and some were trisomics. The special features of the acquisition of the spatial markers by the two samples are in line with the patterns of normally developing children and confirm the psychosemantic models. The dissociation of language structures due to the cognitive developmental pathology enhances the comprehension of normal developmental processes.
Key words : spatial relations markers, comparative approach, trisomics, prematures, psychosemantic model.
L 'acquisition du système d'oppositions sémiques entre les marqueurs de relations spatiales au-dessus de, en dessous de, sous et sur a été étudié à l'aide de la méthode clinique d'interviews, dans un contexte de manipulations d'objets. 144 enfants de 3 à 8 ans furent ainsi examinés, ainsi qu'un groupe contrôle de 50 adultes. Les résultats révèlent trois stades dans cette acquisition, tant en compréhension qu'en production. Les enfants maîtrisent d'abord l'opposition [supérativité] / [infrativité], qui est dominante dans la structure linguistique adulte. Les particularités de leur compréhension et de leurs productions reflètent cependant l'état de développement de la notion cognitive correspondante.
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