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Early words, multiword utterances and maternal reading strategies as predictors of mastering word inflections in Finnish

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 June 2003

MAARIT SILVÉN ,
ANNARILLA AHTOLA  and
PEKKA NIEMI
MAARIT SILVÉN
Affiliation:
University of Turku, Finland
ANNARILLA AHTOLA
Affiliation:
University of Turku, Finland
PEKKA NIEMI
Affiliation:
University of Turku, Finland
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Abstract

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This is the first study to report how children's language skills and mothers' book-reading strategies, measured at 2;0, predict mastery of word inflections at 3;0 and 5;0 in a sample of 66 Finnish children. Three theoretical models were tested on the longitudinal data using path analyses. The testing of the models suggests direct developmental continuity from producing words and multiword utterances on later inflectional growth, but indirect effects of maternal strategies on language outcomes. Moreover, mothers' complex expansions and questions are positively related, whereas labellings and corrections are negatively related, to children's concurrent and subsequent language skills. Finally, vocabulary size relates negatively to maternal attention regulation. When joint attention is easily built up in the dyad, mothers concentrate more on direct reading, which, together with the child's vocabulary, predicts mastery of inflections. In conclusion, the results can be viewed as support for a child-driven view on the future course of language acquisition.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 30 , Issue 2 , May 2003 , pp. 253 - 279
Copyright
2003 Cambridge University Press

Footnotes

This longitudinal research was supported by grants to M.S. from the Academy of Finland and the University of Turku. The manuscript preparation was supported by grant no. 124811/541 from the Joint Committee of the Nordic Social Science Research Councils (NOS-S) to P.N. We thank Marinus Voeten and Matti Grönroos for help with the statistical analyses and the two anonymous reviewers for useful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. We are grateful to Päivi Laine, Anna-Liisa Lahti, Jill Tulonen, and Heli Jokinen for assistance in collection and analysis of data. Special thanks are also due to the parents and the children who participated in the study.