| Abstract: | Notes that although older studies present consistent evidence that girls are advanced in language acquisition, newer findings are equivocal. This discrepancy might be due to a change in methodological approach. Older studies provide data on mean length of utterance (MLU) in sizable samples of toddlers. Since this methodological approach has proved to be sound in view of recent advances in developmental psycholinguistics, it was surprising to find that none of the newer studies had adopted it. To see if the discrepancy in the literature was due to a change in method or in children, the method of the older studies was applied to a contemporary sample. 66 younger toddlers (mean age 23.8 mo) and 64 older toddlers (mean age 28.57 mo) with sexes matched for age, class, and race were studied. Younger toddler girls were significantly advanced in MLU (words or morphemes) and also in upper bound (UB), length of longest utterance (words or morphemes). Older toddler girls were significantly advanced in UB, with the increment in MLU approaching significance. (19 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
