Theories

The use of psychological state words by late talkers at ages 3, 4, and 5 years

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ELIZA CARLSON LEEa1 and LESLIE RESCORLAa1 c1

a1 Bryn Mawr College

Article author query

lee ec

rescorla l

ABSTRACT

The use of four types of psychological state words (physiological, emotional, desire, and cognitive) during mother-child play sessions at ages 3, 4, and 5 years was examined in 30 children diagnosed with delayed expressive language at 24-31 months and 15 age-matched comparison children with typical development. The children's mean length of utterance, total words uttered, lexical diversity, and use of propositional complements were assessed. The late talkers used significantly more physiological state words at ages 3 and 4, but the two groups did not differ in their use of physiological state terms at age 5. The late talkers used significantly fewer cognitive words than the comparison children at each age. The mothers of the late talkers made significantly fewer references to cognitive states than the mothers of the comparison children at each age. The delay in the emergence of cognitive state words in the preschool years may affect other aspects of late talkers' cognitive and social development.

(Received January 06 2006)

(Accepted February 12 2007)

Correspondence:

c1 ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE Leslie Rescorla, Department of Psychology, 101 North Merion Avenue, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010. E-mail: lrescorl@brynmawr.edu

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List of Figures and Tables

Figure 1.

Figure 1. Children's use of physiological state terms (age-matched comparison). [A color version of this figure can be viewed online at www.journals.cambridge.org]

Figure 2.

Figure 2. Children's use of cognitive state terms (age-matched comparison). [A color version of this figure can be viewed online at www.journals.cambridge.org]

Figure 3.

Figure 3. The use of propositional complements by children (age-matched comparison). [A color version of this figure can be viewed online at www.journals.cambridge.org]

Figure 4.

Figure 4. Children's use of psychological state words (mean length of utterance matched). [A color version of this figure can be viewed online at www.journals.cambridge.org]

Table 1.

Table 1. Intake measures for late talkers and comparison children

Table 2.

Table 2. Language outcome measures for late talkers and comparison children at ages 3, 4, and 5 years

Table 3.

Table 3. Correlations between children's use of psychological state terms and language ability measures at ages 3, 4, and 5 years

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Psychological state words are used to talk about internal states. Physiological words (such as sleepy and hungry), desire words (particularly want and need), and emotion words (such as happy and sad) are the earliest and most common psychological state words to appear in children's naturally occurring speech (Bartsch & Wellman, 1995; Bretherton & Beeghly, 1982). At around age 3, children begin to make references to cognitive states and to use words such as think, know, and guess (Bartsch & Wellman, 1995; Shatz, Wellman, & Silber, 1983; Tardif & Wellman, 2000). Several studies have shown that parental use of cognitive state words is associated with children's later use of cognitive state terms (Bartsch & Wellman, 1995; Jenkins, Turrell, Kogushi, Lollis, & Ross, 2003; Ruffman, Slade, & Crowe, 2002). Lee and Rescorla (2002) found that 3-year-old children with histories of expressive language delays as toddlers were delayed in the emergence of psychological state words compared to 3-year-olds with typical language development. The main question addressed by this study is whether these children with a history of language delay would "catch up" in their ability to use psychological state terms relative to children with typical language development by age 5.

LATE TALKERS TOP

VOCABULARY DEVELOPMENT IN LATE TALKERS

ACQUISITION OF PSYCHOLOGICAL STATE TERMS BY LATE TALKERS

RATIONALE FOR THE STUDY

METHOD

RESULTS

DISCUSSION

APPENDIX

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

REFERENCES

Children who have delays in receptive and expressive language that cannot be attributed to a more primary disorder (e.g., mental retardation, autism, gross neurological dysfunction, physical impairment, hearing loss, or psychological disorder) are diagnosed as having specific language impairment (SLI; Bishop & Edmundson, 1987; Rescorla & Lee, 1999; Tallal, 1988). When children under the age of 4 meet the diagnostic criteria for SLI, they are often referred to as late talkers. Many late talkers have age-adequate receptive language, but some have delays in both receptive and expressive language. As summarized by Rescorla (2005), researchers who take a categorical view of language delay generally view late talkers as qualitatively different from children with SLI, primarily because late talkers appear to manifest a better outcome. In contrast, researchers who take a dimensional view of language impairment argue that late talkers and children with SLI fall on a spectrum of language impairment. Rescorla (2005)