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Early vocabulary and gestures in Estonian children*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 August 2011

ASTRA SCHULTS ,
TIIA TULVISTE  and
KENN KONSTABEL
ASTRA SCHULTS*
Affiliation:
University of Tartu, Centre of Behavioral and Health Sciences, Estonia
TIIA TULVISTE
Affiliation:
University of Tartu, Centre of Behavioral and Health Sciences, Estonia
KENN KONSTABEL
Affiliation:
University of Tartu, Centre of Behavioral and Health Sciences, Estonia, and National Institute for Health Development, Estonia
*
Address for correspondence: Institute of Psychology, University of Tartu, Tiigi 78–336, 50410 Tartu, ESTONIA. tel: (372 7) 375906; fax: (372 7) 375900; e-mail: astra.schults@ut.ee
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Abstract

Parents of 592 children between the age of 0 ; 8 and 1 ; 4 completed the Estonian adaptation of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (ECDI Infant Form). The relationships between comprehension and production of different categories of words and gestures were examined. According to the results of regression modelling the production of object gestures and gestural routines was positively correlated with the use of all the word categories. Comprehension of common nouns was positively correlated to the production of common nouns and predicates, whereas the comprehension of predicates was negatively correlated to the production of common nouns and social terms. The older the children were the more they produced words from each category. Girls were reported to produce more social terms. First-born children had an advantage over later-born children in the production of common nouns. Maternal educational level was associated with the production of common nouns and predicates.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 39 , Issue 3 , June 2012 , pp. 664 - 686
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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Footnotes

[*]

Research for this article was supported by the Estonian Ministry of Science and Education (grant SF0180025). The authors would like to thank the parents participating in the study. We also would like to thank Larry Fenson and the CDI Advisory Board for permission to adapt the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories to Estonian.

References

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