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PS 005 168 ED 05 673

AUTHOR Halverson, Charles F., Jr. to Later TITLE Relation of Preschool Verbal Verbal , SocialMaturity, and Distribution of Play Bouts. Health, Bethesda, Md. Child INSTITUTION National Inst. of Mental Research Branch. PUB DATE Sep 71 the 79th Annual Convention of NOTE 9p.; Paper presented at the American PsychologicalAssociation, Washington, D.C., September 3-7,1971

EDRS PRICE MF-$0.65 HC-$3.29 DESCRIPTORS Infant Behavior; *Play;*Preschool Children; Sex Differences; Social Behavior;*Social Maturity; *Verbal Ability; *VerbalCommunication

ABSTRACT The follow-up study describedin this paper tried to accomplish three major objectives:(a) to investigate thepreschool and newborn antecedents ofintellectual functioning, 04 todetermine half in if there were stabilitiesfrom two and a half to seven and a the tempo and style of freeplay--and here we were lookingfor both (c) to isomorphic and metamorphiccontinuities in style of playand, check for stabilities and precursorsof the young child'ssocial relations. Out of the originalsample seen at the newbornand preschool periods, we saw 35sales and 27 females for halfday assessment of play, andsocial and cognitive behaviorwhen they were seven and a half yearsof age. Data were collectedfrom three (b) measures of sources: (a)a 30-minutesample of free play, intelligence, cognitive style, andmotor ability obtained fromthe child, and (c) measures of peerand family relations andsocial maturity obtained from themother. Preschool verbalcommunication was positively related to verbal IQ,social maturity and exploringin play at seven and a half yearsof age. High verbalmales dnd females time exploring a were brighter, moresocially mature and spent more novel play setting. Lowverbal males appear to beless cautious, more impalsive and frenetic in theirshifts of activity, dartingfrom one activity to another. Lowfemales appear hesitant,timid and cautious, not playing much andshifting in a slow deliberate manner. (Author/MK) AnTMENT OF HEALTH, LDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCAIION HAS BEEN REPRO- THIS DOCUMENT DUCED EXACTLY ASRECEIVED FROM THE PERSON ORORGANIZATION ORIG- INATING IT. POINTS OFVIEW OR OPIN- NOT NECESSARILY IONS STATED DO OFFICE OF EDU- REPRESENT OFFICIAL CATION POSITION ORPOLICY -ifirk LATER No. RELATION OF PRESCHOOLVERBAL COMMUNICATION TO !N4) VERBAL INTELLIGENCE,SOCIAL MATURITY, AND DISTRIBUTION OF PLAY BOUTS (:)

Charles F. Halverson, Jr. Child Research Branch National Institute ofMental Health

123-4

Septenher, 1971 Physiology and Preschool Co40) Draft for APA Symposium: Relations of Newborn IntelligenCe, Maturity, Pace ofPlay in the School- Verbal Communication to reported in a Findin s frora otherugal,in,the symposiu7Lare Age Period. CtittraMelopment; Newborn and monograph of the society oresearch in between Periods. CJOD Preschooler: Or anization ofBehavior and Relations g:L4 In press, 1971. COMMUNICATIONTO LATER PRESCHOOLVERBAL RELATION OF SOCIALMATURITY, AND VERBALINTELLIGEOCE, BOUTS DISTRIBUTIONOF PLAY

Charles F.Halverson, Jr. Child ResearchBranch Mental Health NationalInstitute of in Child the Societyfor Research symposiumpresented at reported on somerelations In a earlier Chisyear we barriers at meetings attack onphysical Development of effective behavior at sevenand between severalmeaLlures and and girls,that the preschoolperiod and found forboth boys age. Briefly, we period waspositively a halfyears of the preschool performance at and copingwith novelty effective barrier and vigorin play, IQ,imagination related to and a half. and peers atage seven analysis ofthe preschool today is toextend our What I wishto do maturity andto analyze intelligenceand social consider someof antecedents ofverbal Chat arisewhen we and a the complex sexdifferences measured at seven some of free playbehavi.or the preschoolantecedents of half years ofage. because thedata would follow-up wouldbe valuable develop- We feltehat a differences inpersonality an agewhenindividual early preschooland be obtained at stable. Relations to early becomerelatively important inunderstanding ment have especially newborn behaviorwould be development. behavioral objectives: accomplishthree major follow-up study wetried to intellectual In the newbornantecedents of investigate thepreschool and stabilities fromtwo and a (a) to determine ifehere were play -- andhere functioning,(b) to and styleof free and a halfin the tempo continuities instyle half to seven and metamorphic looking forboth isomorphic of ehe young we were for stabilitiesand precursors of play and,(c) to check relations. child's social periods, the newbornand preschool original sampleseen at of play,and Out of the for a halfday assessment of age. 35 malesand 27 females and a half years we saw behavior whenthey were seven social andcognitive sources: discuss today camefrom three The data-ehatI'm going to of intelligence, sample of freeplay, (b) measures (c) measures (a) athirty-minute from thechild, and and motorability obtained obtained fromthe mother. cognitive style, and socialmaturity of peer andfamily relations obtained by child's freeplay were The variablesdescribing the 2.

similar to the cae used observing his behavior in awell equipped playroom period (See Slide 10, orTable 1). The child and his at the preschool questionnaire mother entered the free-play roomwhere the mother was given a for the whole free playperiod. They were which occupied her attention the materials in the room. alone and the child wasleft to play with any of of the child's behavior wasdictated into a tape A running commentary Although a recorder from behind a one-wayvision mirror. (Slide off.) cod.id from the narratives, number of measures describingfree play were time tmportance for the discussionhere. The first measure, three are of special of time in which we have termed Exploring,consisted of the percentage in the playroom. A high seconds spent shiftingbetween various settings variable meant that thechild spent a large amountof time score on this The opposite physically moving from onefocussed play episode toanother. of the time at one play extreme would be thechild who would play most receive P 1W (or zero)percentage of time in setting and would therefore of "Exploring In addition, an overallrating by the observer shifting. time the Physical Environment" was71ighly correlated with the The other two free play measuresdescribe the pace of spent shifting. of the mean length of the shifting between playsettings, one consisting over the30-minute session (that is, time spent in the shift episodes rate of tine spent moving about, but notplaying) and the other, the mean second of movement. shifting measured tn the numberof feet traversed per these latter two variables aremoderately negatively As might be expected, fast, relat-c.d and can be considered asdescribing a dimension with slower, more deliberate and seemingly goaloriented shifts at one end and meandering shifts in play activityat the other. In other words, a child when he moved, and with very short shifts alsotended to have a fast rate This did not have to be true,however, as a child could, say, vice versa. shifting and still have a relatively longer(or shorter) mean duration move at a relativelyfast (or slow) pace. unknown to the child At the end of this freeplay period, an examiner Reliable ratings entered to take him to another roomfor cognitive testing. novel play situation were made at this pointof the child's coping with the (e.g., vigor, and the stranger, as well asof his general play activity These ratings were done by a personwho had not exploration, dependency). contaminated by known the child in the earlierperiods, so they were not prior knawledge of thechild's behavior. room, While the child was being giventhe cogrultive battery in one behavior (See the mother was being interviewedabout her child's peer about the child's Slide 11, or Table 1) -- generalquestions were obtained The final portion of the friends, their ages, sex, andwhere they lived. interview with the mother was given overto administering theVineland Social Maturity Scale. the tests In the next slide (See Slide12, or Table 1) we can see given to the child. The battery of other testsand procedures administered earlier follow-up study, to the child includedthose we had used in the child's report of including the WISC IQ test, anditems which measure the 3. fantasy level in play. briefly, then, we had threesettings in the follow-up To recapitulate attendant measures of at seven and ahalf: first, free play with the in the novel environment; tempo, style ofplay, and coping with strangers interview focussing on thechild's peer orientation second, the maternal of and third, child testingwhich explored the areas and social maturity; skills. ,imagination in play, and motor only report a The scope of the follow-upstudy is such that we can between periods in the timeI have available small part of the relations continuities in In general, we havedemonstrated some isomorphic here. of which we play behavior, social behavior,and cognitive behavior, some have already reported atthe Society for Researchin Child Development heterotypic relations in the meetings. But there are more metamorphic or school behavior and behavior atseven and a half. In data between nursery difficult to understand addition, we have a numberof complex and, at times, relations between periodsseveral of sex differencesin the longitudinal which I will report heretoday. of relations What I have chosen to do isconcentrate first on a set for each sex and, between the three periodsstudied that are significant show the same pattern overtime for each sex. For these at the same time, combined male and female relations, I will reportthe correlations for the that the relations do holdfor both sexes. sample but I want to emphasize differ- The second cet I will report ontoday shows quite distinctive sex and a half to seven ences in the patternof correlations from age two and a half. that the strategy Before I present some ofthe findings, I want to say adjacent this correlationalanalysis was one of relating we employed in tool and then nursery periods sequentially -- thatis, newborn to nursery reduce the sample too school to seven and ahalf.We would have had to all three periods much had we restricted theanalysis to cases seen at excluded or not studied in thenewborn to nursery because some cases were school to age school link which weresubsequently studied in the nursery For example, some cases wereexcluded at the newborn seven-and-a-half link. jaundice or because period because of complicationssuch as physiological These were they were outside the age rangeset for the newbornperiod. would be less factors that would presumablyaffect newborn behavior but likely to be important in the nurseryschool or seven-and-a-half-year Turning to the results I wish toreport, let me dealfirst follow-ups. half years of with those relations between twoand a half and seven and a direction for bOth boys and age which aresignificant and in the same for ease girls. In this section I will talkabout combined correlations of presentation.

You will recall from theearlier reports at this symposiumthat the there was a consistently negativerelation between the components of respiration preschool verbal commdnicationclass for males and females and 4.

low respiration rate obtalned in thenewborn period.That is, newborns with components of theverbal rates were morelikely to be high in the communication factor, such asratings of speechdevelopment, verbal presentation originality and geographicorientation. For the rest of the preschool verbal I will focus on extendingthe correlates of this communication factor to asmall segment of ourseven-and-a-half-year-old preschool, and follow-up data, thereby linkingsegmentally the newborn, early school-age periods. is the most direct or The first and mostobvious relation to check isomorphic correlate at sevenand a half, namelyverbal intelligence there is indeed a As can be seen, forboth boys and girls (Slide 13). half and the verbal significant relation betweenverbal IQ at seven and a (Parenthetically, our results communication factor at twoand a half. that, while the parallel those found in otherlongitudinal studies in both sexes, femaleshad a much higher relation relation was significant for When alerted to pay between the two periods, 9 r =+ .59 vs. arr =+.22.) trained to record and rate special attention to allutterances, and when asses3children's spontaneous these on several scales,teachers could reliably related to subsequentverbal at two and a halfin a way that was intelligence. teachers' You may alsorecall that manipulativeskill and following preschool period were alsoconsistently negativelyrelated games at the together with those with newborn respiration rate. These relations taken be sociable, of verbal comnunicationdepict preschoolers who tend to participating, and communicative. In one sense thesepreschoolers could of the sample. have been considered thebrighter, more advanced members positive relations One further corrotoration comesfrom the significant, and scores on the of the verbal communicationfactor at two and a half Vineland Social Maturity Scale at sevenand a half. High verbal pre- and a schoolers also obtained higher scoreson social maturity at seven those we half, in addition to higherverbal IQ's. The results parallel meetings where reported at the Sociei.lyfor Research in Child Development also related effective attacks on physicalbarriers at two and a half was imagination in longitudinally to higher verbalintelligence as well as to play, and to ratings of copingand vigor.

Turning to the one measurecoded from free play thatshowed-consistent that relations to the verbal communicationfactor for both sexes, we see those who also children high on verbal communicationat two and a half were of time shifting tended to be high on the measureof exploring (percentage between play settings).This finding is consistentwith other literature Presumably the brighter childrentend to process on younger children. tend to information at a faster rate andtherefore in novel environments show more "act changes" orexploratory behavior.

To recapitulate briefly thefindings consistent forboth sexes -- social preschool verbal communication waspositively related to verbal IQ,

5 5.

exploring in free play at sevenand a half. High verbal maturity, and the sociall, and spent more males and females werebrighter, more mature time exploring a novelplay setting. obtained, however, for the pace Longitudinal sex differences were verbal As can be seen fromthe slide (Slide 13),the preschool measures. length of shifts communication factor waspositively related to mean related for the females. between play settings formales and negatively of shifts, however, wefind When we examine thecorrelates for the speed Here, the preschoolverbal communication just fhe opposite pattern. rate of Shifts factor for males wasnegatively related to the speed or just the reverse, verbalcommunication being and the female pattern shows In other positively related to speedof shifts at age sevenand a half. indirect shifts, while words, high verbal maleslater showed slower, more directly between play settings. high verbal females latershifted quickly and exploring, i.e., When we combine these resultswith the measure of while both high verbal percentage of time spentshifting, we find that exploring the play males and females spent moretime in shifting or setting to setting. environment, they differed inthe way they changed from but their pace, in High verbal males explored awide variety of objects slower, more indirect contrast to high verbalfemales, was characterized by also explored, but shifting between play settings. The high verbal female between play settings. her play was characterizedby rapid, direct shifts Looking at,the law verbalmales and females, we findlow verbal males explored little, but, when theydid so, darted quicklyfrom setting to appeared setting in an almostunplanned, impulsive way. Law verbal females free play what could be characterized ashesitant and timid in tha They explored less and showedindirect, slow shiftingbetween situation. active involvement in theplay play settings. In a way, they showed little setting, spending more timecompletely inactive.

One way of looking at thedifference in the pace ofexploratory think in activity between high and lowverbal males and females is to processing ability. terms of two constructs,cautiousness ad information their female counterparts, arefast habituators CD High verbal males, like large amount in the play setting, exploringand procssing a relatively imaginative -- using a wide 70m4 of information. Their play was busy, and variety of play objects in creative ways. The males, however, are more tendency to explore, cautious and "reflective" thanthe females, and have a If-3, but deliberately and slowly; whereasthe females are much lesscautious, they "get around" the room morequickly and directly than males.

Low verbal males and femalespresumably process information moreslowly, 7.mw and, hence, both explore less andplay with fewer objects lessimaginatively. CO:I Here also we see a difference incautiousness. The boys appear here to be less cautious, more impulsive andfrenetic in their Shifts of activity, 4darting from one activity to another. Females appear hesitant, timid and 12 cautious, not playing much and shifting in aslow eleliberate manner. 6.

to the sexes, These latter longitudinalfindings, unlike those common I suspect that when wecome to understand are verycomplex and intriguing. unlocked some basically newinformation on the them, we will have One purpose developmental course ofchildren's exploration andcognition. long-term relations fordiscussion. of this symposium is to openup these 7.

Table 1

Summary of Methoe for7k Year Follow-Up

Setting Types of Measures

30 Minutes Free Play in 1. Reaction to novel situation 1. play playroom, mother filling 2. Observed tempo and variety of out questionnaire 3. Reaction to strangers 4. General behavior ratings

1. Maternal interview with detailedweek in review covering hourswith peers, number of friends, number of peers 2. Mother Interview (during child testing) seen in week, etc. 2. Ratings of peer behavior 3. Vineland Social Maturity Scale

1. Draw-a-Person Test (DAP) 2. WISC Maccoby Motor Inhibition Test 3. Child Testing 3. 4. Singer Imagination Test 5. Siegel Sorting Task 6. Children's Embedded Figures Test(CEFT)

(Break -- Refreshments)

,l. Motor Evaluation 2. Muscle Strength Test Child Testing 4. 3. Minor Physical Anomalies Assessment 4. Height and Weight

8 8.

Slide #13

INTERCORRELATIONS BETWEENPERIODS

111111111:1111111=1S 71/2 YEARS NEWBORN 21/2 YEARS

+.40 VERBAL IQ NO SEX 41 VINELAND SQ

+.29 EXPLORATORY PLAY RESPIRATION VERBAL COMMUNICA- RATE_-_:ala TION FACTOR

+ .42d7 SHIFT LENGTH (NONPLAY) SEX DIFFERENCES*

.37d SPEED OF +.419 SHIFTS

NOTE. --ALL CORRELATIONS SIGNIFICANTAT p < .05. aCOMBINED.MA1Z AND FEMALE CORRELAnONS.