Coordination of Caregiver Naming and Children's Exploration of Solid Objects and Nonsolid Substances

Abstract

When a caregiver names objects dominating a child's view, the association between object and name is unambiguous and children are more likely to learn the object's name. Children also learn to name things other than solid objects, including nonsolid substances like applesauce. However, it is unknown how caregivers structure linguistic and exploratory experiences with nonsolids to support learning. In this exploratory study of caregivers and children (n = 14, 8 girls; M = 20.50 months) we compare caregiver-child free-play with novel solid objects and novel nonsolid substances to identify the linguistic and exploratory experiences associated with children's word learning. We found systematic differences in interactions with novel objects, such that children performed more manual actions on solids than nonsolids and caregivers named solids more than nonsolids. Additionally, there was less synchrony between caregivers' naming and children's manual and visual exploration of nonsolids than solids. Consistent with prior work, we found that synchronous naming was associated with accurate recognition of solid object names. However, naming synchrony was not associated with recognition of nonsolid substance names or with generalization. Together these findings, though exploratory, suggest the coordination of caregiver-child play can shape what children remember about novel word-object associations for solid objects, but not nonsolid substances.

Keywords: caregiver-child interaction; exploration; head cameras; manual-visual exploration; word learning.

Figure 1

Novel solid object exemplars (top row) and nonsolid substance exemplars (bottom row) used in the free-play, recognition, and generalization tasks. Clockwise from top left, the objects’ names and materials are sebby (textured clay), tulver (clay), blicket (wood), bosa (icing), teema (seed style Dijon mustard), and modi (dyed mayonnaise).

Figure 2

Example first-person views from a caregiver’s (left) and child’s (right) perspectives of free-play with solid objects (top) and nonsolid substances (bottom).

Figure 3

Examples of children’s touch, hold, and pick up behaviors (from left to right) coded for solid (top) and nonsolid (bottom) exemplars during free-play.

Figure 4

Average (A) proportion correct on recognition trials testing children’s associations between novel words and objects, and (B) proportion shape matches selected on generalization trials testing children’s attention to shape and material. Dashed lines represent chance (0.33 and 0.50 for the tests of recognition and generalization respectively).

Figure 5

Comparison of synchronous naming during free-play for those novel names that children correctly recognized at test versus those that they did not. Error bars represent standard error of mean.