Browsing by Subject "3-year-old"

Purpose of the study My aim was to assess the knowledge of basic relational concepts among Finnish three-year-olds and to conduct a preliminary comparison between their results and those of their American peers in the Boehm-3 Preschool validation sample. Another goal was to look into whether age, gender, months spent in the early education services, socio-economic factors or the level of general language skills were linked to the knowledge of these concepts among the Finnish sample. Methods The subjects were recruited by contacting the early education services in the city of Helsinki. All 35 subjects from 8 different daycare centers were typically developing monolingual 3-year-olds living in Helsinki. The subjects were subdivided into two different age groups: 3 years 0 months to 3 years 5 months and 3 years 6 months to 3 years 11 months. For the purpose of the assessment the Boehm-3 Preschool test form was translated into Finnish. The level of general language comprehension and production was assessed by using the standardized Finnish version of Reynell Developmental Language Scales III (Edwards ym., 1997; Kortesmaa ym., 2001). The results were statistically analyzed. Results and conclusions The subjects in the sample of this study scored higher than their peers in the Boehm-3 Preschool samples. Several of the concepts were passed by a significantly greater portion of the group in the Finnish than in the American samples. There were fewer concepts that were easier for the Finnish group, however, in the older group. Unlike the socio-economic factors, gender and age, the level of the general language skills significantly correlated with the knowledge of the basic relational concepts. The results suggest that Finnish children might learn the basic relational concepts earlier than their American peers and have a stronger knowledge of them at this age. The results of the study are however preliminary at best given the small sample size and the great differences between the socio-economic factors between the Finnish and the American samples.