Verbal Control of Delay Behavior in Two-Year-Old Boys as a Function of Social Class

Abstract

GOLDEN, MARK; MON'TARE, ALBERTO; and BamGER, WAGNER. Verbal Control of Delay Behavior in Two-Year-Old Boys as a Function of Social Class. CmLD DEVELOPMENT, 1977, 48, 1107-1111. According to A. R. Luria, an important step in the verbal regulation of behavior occurs when the child's behavior can be externally controlled by parents through language: when it becomes possible, for example, for a parent to get the child to delay a response to a desirable object or activity by verbal means alone. In a longitudinal study of boys from different social classes from 24 to 30 months of age, we asked children to play "waiting games" which challenged their newly emerging ability to wait, employing delay tasks similar to one used by Luria. We found that children as young as 2 years of age were capable of following verbal instructions to delay a response until a signal was given later. We also found that children's performance on such Luria-type delay tasks was related to social class, IQ, age, type of delay task, and length of delay interval.