Early communicative competences of infants and toddlers: A Slovenian study

Abstract

Communicative competences develop rapidly in the periods of infanthood and toddlerhood, both from the qualitative and quantitative point of view. In the following study we aimed to analyse for the first time the age differences in early communication competences of Slovenian infants and toddlers. The sample included 512 infants and toddlers, aged from 8 to 30 months; their communication competences were assessed with the Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Gestures and Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences (Marjanovič Umek, Fekonja Peklaj, Sočan, and Komidar, 2011). The obtained results suggest that in the period between 8 and 30 months of age there are significant age differences within different areas of communication competences (e.g. communicative and symbolic gestures, vocabulary, length and grammatical complexity of sentences). In addition, we found moderate to high positive correlations between different areas of infants' and toddlers' communication competences. The analysis of the effect of gender on the communication competences of infants and toddlers showed that girls and boys aged 8 to 16 months did not differ significantly in their communicative competences. Significant gender differences were found in toddlers aged from 16 to 30 months: girls expressed a more extensive vocabulary.

Keywords

• communicative competences
• gestures
• vocabulary
• grammar
• infants
• toddlers