The Development of Verbal Behavior (I) : Analysis of observational data collected by time-sampling method: A quasi-longitudinal study of infants from 2 to 17 months old.

Our main premise concerning language acquisition is that the major organizing features of formal language i.e. syntax, semantics, pragmatics and phonology, have important precursors and prerequisites in the prespeech communicative acts of infants. We are undertaking a follow up observational study of children from 2 to 24 months old with their mothers. The aims of this study are to clarify the transition from prespeech communication to early language and to show how dependent the development of verbal behavior is upon the nature of the interaction which takes place between mother and child from the early months. The present paper is our first report of this longitudinal study. We analyzed part of our quasi-longitudinal data collected by 161 fortnightly home visits (8 children from 2 to 5 months old; 4 childen from 6 to 11 months old; 4 children from 12 to 17 months old). These were time-sampled data of children\u27s behavior (perceptual, language-vocalization, communicative, physical, etc.) and mothers\u27 behavior (caretaking, emotional, playing, language, etc.) of which frequencies and correlations were calculated every two months. The developmental changes of these behavior, especially those of communicative and verbal behavior were discussed