The evaluation of 4-6 year-old Persian-speaking children’s ability to comprehend and express wh-questions
,
Abstract
Background and Aim: Studies have shown that most children before age 4 are able to comprehend and express wh-question. In the Persian language, a case study has confirmed these results. The aim of this study is to evaluate the ability of 4-6 year olds to comprehend and express wh-question.
Methods: Seventy two 4-6 year-old Persian-speaking children were selected randomly. Wh-words consist of: what, where, who, why, and when. In the part of comprehension subjects answered questions about two pictures, and in the part of expression they asked questions elicited by a speaking puppet about four pictures. Descriptive analysis and student’s t-test were used for data analysis.
Results: In comprehension 4-6 year-old children gained the complete score (2) with SD=0 in all whwords. However, 4-5 year old children gained the score of 1.89 with SD of 0.32 for the word when. In expression, independent t-test showed the maximum score of 3.52 with SD of 0.84 related to questions with who. 5-6 and 4-5 year old subjects had significant differences in questions with what (p=0.005), where (p=0.003), who (p=0.012), and when (p<0.001). Most errors were expressed in question with when.
Conclusion: Subjects of this study had the ability to comprehend and express wh-words. Comprehension of wh-words is easy for 4-6 year-old children; they are able to use them in questions, but have some application errors.
2. Owens RE. Language development: an introduction. 8th ed. Boston: Allyn & Bacon; 2011.
3. Hegde MN. Treatment protocols for language disorders in children, vol. 2: social communication. 1st ed. San Diego: Plural Publishing, Inc; 2006.
4. Nicolosi L, Harryman E, Kresheck J. Terminology of communication disorders: speech-language-hearing. 5th ed. Baltimore: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins; 2004.
5. Bochner S, Jones J. Child language development. 2nd ed. London: Whurr publisher; 2003.
6. Lee RF, Ashmore LL. Receptive and expressive wh-question performance by language-delayed children. J Commun Disord. 1983;16(2):99-109.
7. de Villiers P. Assessing pragmatic skills in elicited production . Semin Speech Lang. 2004;25(1):57-71.
8. Rowland CF, Pine JM. Subject-auxiliary inversion errors and wh-question acquisition: 'what children do know'? J Child Lang. 2003;27(1):157-81.
9. Rowland CF, Pine JM, Liven EV, Theakston AL. The incidence of error in young children's Wh-questions. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2005;48(2):384-404.
10. Chan Hang Yee C. Elicited production of wh-questions in cantonese-speaking children. [Dissertation]. Hong Kong: The University of Hong Kong; 2004.
11. Rowland CF. Explaining errors in children's questions. Cognition. 2007;104(1):106-34.
12. Jalilevand N, Ebrahimipour M. Use of question words in two Persian speaking children's speech from 12 to 36 months. Audiol. 2010;19(2):93-101. Persian.
13. Lee HT. Development of a mandarin-speaking child's comprehension of wh-questions. Cahiers de linguistique - Asie orientale. 1989;18(1):29-62.
14. Shipley KG, McAfee J. Assessment in speech-language pathology: a resource manual. 3rd ed. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning; 2004.
| Issue | Vol 22 No 1 (2013) | |
| Section | Research Article(s) | |
| Keywords | ||
| Children question words comprehension expression Persian language | ||
| Rights and permissions | |
|
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License. |
