Examining the role of external language support and children’s own language use in spatial development

• Published in: Journal of experimental child psychology Vol. 215; p. 105317
• Main Authors: Miller-Goldwater, Hilary E., Simmering, Vanessa R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Elsevier Inc 01.03.2022
• Subjects: Child; Child development; Child, Preschool; Cues; Humans; Language; Language Development; Language production; Mental Recall; Reference frame selection; Spatial cognition; Spatial words; Verbal encoding; Reference frame selection; Verbal encoding; Language production; Child development; Spatial cognition; Spatial words
• ISSN: 0022-0965; 1096-0457; 1096-0457
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jecp.2021.105317

•Tested language support and children’s relevant language use on spatial recall.•Older children’s spatial recall benefited less from external language support.•Relevant language use and language support each uniquely predicted spatial recall.•No evidence that children adopt verbal encoding once they produce relevant language.•Children benefit from language support even when producing task-relevant language. This research investigated whether an experimental manipulation providing children with external language support reflects developmental processes whereby children come to use language within spatial tasks. A total of 121 3- to 6-year-old children participated in language production and spatial recall tasks. The Production task measured children’s task-relevant descriptions of spatial relations on the testing array. The Recall task assessed children’s delayed search for hidden object locations on the testing array relative to one or more spatial reference frames (egocentric, room-centered, and intrinsic). During the Recall task, the experimenter provided children with either descriptive or nondescriptive verbal cues. Results showed that children’s task-relevant language production improved with age and the effects of language support on spatial performance decreased with age. However, children’s production of task-relevant language did not account for effects of language support. Instead, children benefited from language support irrespective of their task-relevant language production. These results suggest that verbal encoding is not a spontaneous process that young children use in support of their spatial performance. In addition, experimental manipulations of language support are not fully reflective of the ways in which children come to use language within spatial tasks.