nicole kotras masters thesis

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f, v, s, z, l, r, th, and consonant clusters; and to produce speech which is 100% intelligible.
Regarding the White pre-schoolers of both samples, their use of various parts of speech
(descriptive words, possessive and personal pronouns) was below the expected number
quantity (Griffiths, 1960).
Griffiths (1960) made a distinction between a child's verbalizations while freely
commencing upon his/her drawing or other occupation (collective monologue), and that
when conversing with other children (or individuals). In the former, it follows that the speech
of the child is secondary to the main activity, into which most of their energy is flowing. We
therefore, cannot regard this type of conversation as typical of all their speech. It would be
incorrect to assume that a child's collective monologue, whilst engaged upon intensely
interesting individual occupations, equates the conversation the same child will share whilst
anxious to convey their meanings in the presented large picture of the Hearing and Speech
Scale of the Griffiths Scales. One such reason for the White pre-schoolers' mean number of
descriptive words and pronouns being below Griffiths (1960) proposed number, could be
related to such issues.
Regarding the large SA and UK pictures, the general pattern of elicited responses
indicates that the pre-schoolers falling in the higher age ranges, identify a higher mean
number of stimuli, descriptive words, and descriptive sentences. The older children from
sample 1 identified a higher mean number of personal and possessive pronouns than their
younger counterparts, this however was not evident with the children of sample 2. The
gradual increase in language acquisition and expression is in accordance with numerous
theories on language development (Griffiths, 1960; McCarthy, 1930; Mussen, et. al., 1984;
Oskaar, 1983; Piaget, 1952a). Bjorklund (1989) and Whitehurst (1982) state that a child's
expressive language at 60 months and above should include complex syntax, an increasing
vocabulary and better grammar than a younger child who only has some complex sentences
and still has grammatical errors (e.g., "goed").
Table 11 indicates the responses provided by the three socio-economic groupings of
the White pre-schoolers to the revised small and large SA and UK pictures.