Facilitating children's understanding of questions through pictures: implications for social class language differences

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Abstract
The effects of pictorialization on low- and middle-social class (SES) children's comprehension of wh-questions was examined. Sixty middle- and 60 low-SES children, aged 3;6 to 5;2, were asked to respond to six types of wh-questions in two stimulus conditions. The pictures in Stimulus I contained information to answer more than one wh-question. The pictures in Stimulus II contained information to answer only one wh-question. Both SES groups answered significantly more questions in Stimulus II. Examination of simple effects indicated that middle-SES children benefited from pictorial support on comprehending the later developed wh-words representing abstract linguistic constructs (why, how, when) while low-SES children benefited on comprehending early acquired wh-words (who, what, where).