Recognition of Verbal Labels of Pictured Objects and Events by 17- to 30-Month-Old Infants

Abstract

A technique for efficiently presenting a large number of vocabulary items was developed for the testing of vocabulary comprehension in children younger than two years. The technique, incorporating slides of real objects, had the advantages of maintaining the child’s attention, motivating task continuation, and overcoming the extraneous contextual cues of test materials. The subjects were 106 children aged 17 to 30 months from a wide range of social status groups, and from both English and Spanish language families. Results indicated significant stability over time as well as a significant relationship to maternal report. Analysis of errors suggested that comprehension develops similarly to production, in that simple nouns were the easiest items, verbs were more difficult, and modifiers and locatives were the most difficult. There were no significant main effects of sex or social status. However, specific environmental variables such as parental attitudes and playmate patterns were significantly correlated with test performance. More flexible family control systems and more interaction with peers were both associated with better vocabulary comprehension in firstborn children.

Attachment behaviors in autistic children

“…Receptive language ability is indexed by the total number of pictures identified cor-rectly. In a previous study (Beckwith & Thompson, 1976) this measure was shown to have high test-retest reliability (r(17) = .87, p < .001; r(13) = .94, p < .001) and high item reliability for normal children (Kuder-Richardson coefficient = .91).…”

“…Receptive language was measured with a procedure developed by Beckwith and Thompson (1976), which is described fully in other publications . The child is shown 34 pairs of slide pictures of real objects or events and is required to touch the member of the pair labeled by the experimenter.…”

Categorization skills and receptive language development in autistic children

“…Receptive language was assessed using a receptive language measure developed by Beckwith and Thompson (1976). The child was shown pairs of slide pictures representing objects and events from the everyday meaningful experience of most young children.…”

Mothers' Use of Personal Pronouns when Talking with Toddlers

“…As shown in Table 1, many aspects of the mother's talk were significantly correlated with her 2-year-old child's achievement on the Receptive Language Test (Beckwith & Thompson, 1976) opment (Bayley, 1969). As the child grew older, only the mother's use of first person plural pronouns and her responsiveness continued to be directly related to test scores.…”

“…At 24 months, the children were given the Receptive Language Test (Beckwith & Thompson, 1976). At 25 months, they were given the Bayley Scales of Infant Development (Bayley, 1969).…”