영아의 비언어적 의사소통과 어머니의 언어적 행동 및 영아 어휘력 간의 관계

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship among infants` nonverbal communication, maternal verbal behaviors and the infants` acquisition of vocabulary. The subjects were 93 pairs of 10 to 18 months old infants and their mothers residing in the Seoul and GyeongGi-Do area. The results were as follows : (1) In terms of the infants` nonverbal communicative means, it appeared that the group of 16~18 month olds utilized more gesture and vocalization. As regards the infants` nonverbal communicative functions in terms of social behavior and joint attention, the group of 16~18 month olds was found to perform more of the behaviors from this category than the other groups. There was a significant difference in the maternal verbal behavior among the different age groups. (2) Among the infants` nonverbal communicative means, gesture and vocalization, there appeared to be a significant relationship between vocalization and the infants` acquisition of vocabulary. In addition, there was an important relationship between the high usage of infants` nonverbal communicative functions with behavior regulation and the high usage of joint attention and the successful acquisition of vocabulary among infants. (3) Social play, which is a maternal verbal behavior categorized as one of the strategies for getting infants` attention, was significantly related to the acquisition of infants` vocabulary. (4) When mothers used more imitating sounds and mimetic words, requests for information, descriptions, conventional social expressions, and imitation to enhance responsiveness, infants were found to have acquired a larger vocabulary.