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Language skills in shy and non-shy preschoolers and the effects of assessment context*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 October 2008

KATHERINE A. SPERE ,
MARY ANN EVANS ,
CAROL-ANNE HENDRY  and
JUBILEA MANSELL
KATHERINE A. SPERE
Affiliation:
University of Guelph
MARY ANN EVANS*
Affiliation:
University of Guelph
CAROL-ANNE HENDRY
Affiliation:
University of Guelph
JUBILEA MANSELL
Affiliation:
University of Guelph
*
Address for correspondence: Mary Ann Evans, Department of Psychology, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario N1G 2W1, CANADA. tel: 519-824-4120, x 53080; fax: 519-837-8629; e-mail: evans@psy.uoguelph.ca
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Abstract

Nineteen shy, twenty-three middle and twenty-five non-shy junior kindergarten children were assessed at school by an unfamiliar examiner, and at home where their parents administered a parallel form of the expressive and receptive vocabulary tests given at school. A speech sample between the child and parent was also collected at home. Shy children spoke less than non-shy and middle children at home. Additionally, the parents of shy children spoke less than parents of non-shy children. Although there were no language differences between the groups, results showed a context effect for expressive vocabulary, in that all groups of children scored higher at school. The pattern of results suggests that previously observed language differences found between shy and non-shy children are not robust, and that testing children at school does not negatively impact their performance.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 36 , Issue 1 , January 2009 , pp. 53 - 71
Copyright
Copyright © 2008 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

[*]

This research was supported by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Postgraduate Scholarship (NSERC – PGS – A) awarded to the first author, and a research grant from the Canadian Language and Literacy Research Network awarded to the second author. We would like to thank the parents and children who participated in this study, as well as the schools, teachers and principals who expressed interest in our study and allowed us to collect data in the schools. We also would like to thank Tiffany Pursoo for her help with entering, transcribing and coding the data and Rod Barron for his comments on an early draft.

References

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