Abstract
Objective: Children organize their conceptual knowledge in different ways such as thematic and taxonomic organization. When concepts are linked by cross-categorical relations, they are said to be thematically related. This study attempts to investigate the development of different types of thematic relations such as spatial-temporalfunctional relations and causal relations in Kannada speaking typical children. Method: A total of 216 typically developing children between age group of 2-4 years speaking Kannada were selected for the study. Match to sample task using picture stimuli were administered to assess spatial-temporalfunctional relations and causal types of thematic relations. The match to sample task included one standard and four choice responses, one of which was a thematic match (either spatial and/or temporal and/or functionally related match or a causal match depending on the test carried out) to the test stimuli. Responses of the children were analyzed using a four point rating scale. Results: Results revealed that appreciation of spatial-temporal-functional and causal types of thematic relations emerges in children as young as 2 years of age and broadens with increase in age to 3-4 years. Gender effect was not significant in both these tasks. There was no significant difference found in the performance of children between test for spatial-temporal-functional relations and test for causal relations. Conclusion: The results of present study demonstrate that thematic relations in specific spatial-temporalfunctional relations and causal relations show a similar pattern of developmental trend in preschool children of 2-4 years of age. In addition they are found to be one of the important types of organizational strategies used by 2-4 years children to conceptual world knowledge and thus play a key role in language acquisition.
Highlights
A thematic relation is any temporal, spatial, causal, or functional relation between things
The results of present study demonstrate that thematic relations in specific spatial-temporalfunctional relations and causal relations show a similar pattern of developmental trend in preschool children of 2-4 years of age
Shapiro-Wilk test of normality was run and it was found that for two different symbol association [spatial-temporalfunctional relations (TSTFR) task, there was normality for age groups, but not for gender and for Test for Causal Relations (TCR) task, there was no normality for both age groups and gender
Summary
A thematic relation is any temporal, spatial, causal, or functional relation between things. While things are grouped based on common properties in taxonomical relations, things are grouped based on space, time, causal and functional dimensions in thematic relations. Spatial relationship is defined as how an object is located in space compared to some reference object. This relationship can be inferred by eliciting response to the question 'Where'. To elicit the spatial relationship between ‘bird’ and ‘tree’, one can ask the question ‘Where does a bird usually sit? To elicit the spatial relationship between ‘bird’ and ‘tree’, one can ask the question ‘Where does a bird usually sit? Likewise, temporal relationship (Example - ‘tumbler’ and ‘plate’) is defined as a relation that involves time (e.g., meal time) and this can be inferred by eliciting response to the question 'When’?; Functional relationship (Example, ‘pencil and ‘book’) is defined as a relation that associates two objects through functional use and this can be inferred by eliciting the question ‘What for’?; Causal relationship (Example, ‘bulb’ and ‘switch’) is defined as the relationship between cause and the effect and this relationship can be inferred by eliciting the response to the question 'How'?
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