Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T15:43:32.549Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Basic language comprehension and production in >100,000 young children from sixteen developing nations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 2011

MARC H. BORNSTEIN  and
CHARLENE HENDRICKS
MARC H. BORNSTEIN*
Affiliation:
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
CHARLENE HENDRICKS
Affiliation:
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development
*
Address for correspondence: Dr Marc H. Bornstein, Child and Family Research, Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, Suite 8030, 6705 Rockledge Drive, Bethesda, MD 20892-7971, USA. tel: 301-496-6832; fax: 301-496-2766; e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Using the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, language comprehension and production were compared in a sample of 101,250 children aged 2 ; 00 to 9 ; 11 and a focus subsample of 38,845 children aged 2 ; 00 to 4 ; 11 from sixteen under-researched developing nations. In the whole sample, comprehension slightly exceeded production; correlations between comprehension and production by country were positive and significant, but varied in size, and the average correlation was positive, significant, and small to medium. Mean comprehension and production varied with child age, reaching an asymptote at 5 ; 00, and correlations between comprehension and production by age were positive, significant, and similar at each age. In the focus subsample, comprehension exceeded production; correlations between comprehension and production by country were positive and significant, but varied in size, and the average correlation was positive, significant, and medium in size. Children in countries with lower standards of living were less likely to demonstrate basic language comprehension or production.

Type
Brief Research Reports
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 39 , Issue 4 , September 2012 , pp. 899 - 918
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Arnett, J. J. (2008). The neglected 95%: Why American psychology needs to become less American. American Psychologist 63, 602–614.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bates, E. (1993). Comprehension and production in early language development: Comments on Savage-Rumbaugh et al. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 58, 222–42.Google Scholar
Bauer, D. J., Goldfield, B. A. & Reznick, J. S. (2002). Alternative approaches to analyzing individual differences in the rate of early vocabulary development. Applied Psycholinguistics 23, 313–35.Google Scholar
Behrend, D. A. (1988). Overextensions in early language comprehension: Evidence from a signal detection approach. Journal of Child Language 15, 63–75.Google Scholar
Benedict, H. (1979). Early lexical development: Comprehension and production. Journal of Child Language 6, 183–200.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Berman, R. A. (2004). Language development across childhood and adolescence. Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bornstein, M. H. (ed.). (2010). The handbook of cultural developmental science: Vol. 1. Domains of development across cultures; Vol. 2. Development in different places on earth. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Bornstein, M. H., Britto, P. B., Nonoyama-Tarumi, Y., Ota, Y., Petrovic, O. & Putnick, D. L. (2012). Child development in developing countries: Introduction and methods. Child Development.Google Scholar
Bornstein, M. H. & Haynes, O. M. (1998). Vocabulary competence in early childhood: Measurement, latent construct, and predictive validity. Child Development 69, 654–71.Google Scholar
Bornstein, M. H., Haynes, O. M. & Painter, K. (1998). Sources of child vocabulary competence: A multivariate model. Journal of Child Language 25, 367–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Campbell, R., Macdonald, T. B. & Dockrell, J. (1982). The relationship between comprehension and production and its ontogenesis. In Lowenthal, F., Vandamme, J. & Cordier, J. (eds), Language and language acquisition, 141–50. New York: Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Clark, E. V. (1993). The lexicon in acquisition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clark, E. V. & Hecht, B. F. (1983). Comprehension, production, and language acquisition. Annual Review of Psychology 34, 325–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cohen, J. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences, 2nd edn.Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Dale, P. & Goodman, J. (2005). Commonality and individual differences in vocabulary growth. In Tomasello, M. & Slobin, D. I. (eds), Beyond nature–nurture. Essays in honor of Elizabeth Bates, 41–80. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Google Scholar
Dollaghan, C. A., Campbell, T. F., Paradise, J. L., Feldman, H. M., Janosky, J. E. & Pitcairn, D. N. (1999). Maternal education and measures of early speech and language. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 42, 1432–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fenson, L., Dale, P., Reznick, J. S., Bates, E., Thal, D. & Pethick, S. (1994). Variability in early communicative development. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 59 (5, Serial No. 242).Google Scholar
Fenson, L., Marchman, V. A., Thal, D., Dale, P., Reznick, S. & Bates, E. (2007). The MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories: User's guide and technical manual, 2nd edn.Baltimore, MD: Paul. H. Brookes Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Harris, M., Yeeles, C., Chasin, J. & Oakley, Y. (1995). Symmetries and asymmetries in early lexical comprehension and production. Journal of Child Language 22, 1–18.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hart, B. & Risley, T. R. (1995). Meaningful differences in the everyday experience of young American children. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing.Google Scholar
Hedges, L. V. & Olkin, I. (1985). Statistical methods for meta-analysis. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hoff, E. (2006). How social contexts support and shape language. Developmental Review 26, 55–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huttenlocher, J., Vasilyeva, M., Cymerman, E. & Levine, S. (2002). Language input and child syntax. Cognitive Psychology 45, 337–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Kern, S. (2007). Lexicon development in French-speaking infants. First Language 27, 227–50.Google Scholar
Lyytinen, P., Poikkeus, A.-M., Laakso, M.-L., Eklund, K. & Lyytinen, H. (2001). Language development and symbolic play in children with and without familial risk for dyslexia. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 44, 873–885.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mankiw, N. G., Romer, G. & Weil, D. N. (1992). A contribution to the empirics of economic growth. The Quarterly Journal of Economics 107, 407–437.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marsh, L. C. & Cormier, D. R. (2001). Spline regression models. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
National Center for Children in Poverty (1999). Poverty and brain development in early childhood. New York: National Center for Children in Poverty.Google Scholar
Pinker, S. (2007). The language instinct. New York: Harper.Google Scholar
Rescorla, L. & Alley, A. (2001). Validation of the Language Development Survey (LDS). Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 44, 434–45.Google Scholar
Reznick, J. S. & Goldfield, B. A. (1992). Rapid change in lexical development in comprehension and production. Developmental Psychology 28, 406–413.Google Scholar
Tamis-LeMonda, C. S., Bornstein, M. H., Kahana-Kalman, R., Baumwell, L. & Cyphers, L. (1998). Predicting variation in timing of language milestones in the second year: An events history approach. Journal of Child Language, 25, 675–700.Google Scholar
Tan, S. H. & Schafer, G. (2005). Toddlers' novel word learning: Effects of phonological representation, vocabulary size and parents' ostensive behaviour. First Language 25, 131–55.Google Scholar
Tomblin, J. B., Hardy, J. C. & Hein, H. A. (1991). Predicting poor-communication status in preschool children using risk factors present at birth. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 34, 1096–1105.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
UNICEF Division of Policy and Planning (2006). Multiple indicator cluster survey manual 2005: Monitoring the situation of children and women. New York: UNICEF.Google Scholar
United Nations Development Programme (2007). Human Development Reports. Retrieved 10 July 2009, from: http://hdr.undp.org/en/statistics/hdi/.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wassenberg, R., Hurks, P. P. M., Hendriksen, J. G. M., Feron, F. J. M., Meijs, C. J. C., Vles, J. S. H. & Jolles, J. (2008). Age-related improvement in complex language comprehension: Results of a cross-sectional study with 361 children aged 5 to 15. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology 30, 435–48.Google Scholar
Weizman, Z. O. & Snow, C. E. (2001). Lexical output as related to children's vocabulary acquisition: Effects of sophisticated exposure and support for meaning. Developmental Psychology 37, 265–79.Google Scholar
Zink, I. & Lejaegere, M. (2002). N-CDIs: Lijsten voor Communicatieve Ontwikkeling. Aanpassing en hernormering van de MacArthur CDIs van Fenson et al. Leuven: Acco.Google Scholar