Spatial term use and its relation to language function at two developmental stages

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Abstract
In this investigation we (a) looked at the relation between spatial terms and the functions of utterances and (b) documented children's use of spatial prepositions and adverbs. Ten children were studied playing with their mother and then an experimenter in two 30 minute play sessions held when the children were 2;0 - 2;6 and 3;6 - 4;0. At both ages about 30% of utterances had a spatial term. Descriptions of child activity functions had the greatest percentage of terms at both ages, though this percentage dropped from the younger to older samples while the percentage of terms in environmental references increased. The most frequent spatial terms used at 2;0 - 2;6 were in, here, down, there and out, whereas at 3;6 - 4;0 in, there, where, here, and up were most frequent. Interactions between function and term use were found. These suggested that structured tasks which do not allow for descriptions of child activity functions are limited in generalizability.

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