engleski

Parents’ evaluation of child language development: evidence from Portuguese and Croatian

The importance of natural contexts for child learning and development assumes an essential dimension, which consequently values active involvement and participation of the family in all the different moments of child’s development. In the process of early intervention the parental role in language development is particularly important. Parents present reliable source of information about child language development since they see their child in various language and communicative situations and they are motivated to follow and evaluate child development (Fenson et al., 2000). The goal of this study was to understand the knowledge of parents/caregivers about language development, considering the importance, as well as the influence that they play in this process. For this purpose, a Survey about Parents and Caregivers` Knowledge on Language Development (Santos et. all, 2011) was developed as a tool for gathering this value information. This Survey includes three separately surveys, each created for the one age group (three, four and five-years-old), and each respecting linguistic behaviors of children of these ages, which are well described by several authors and by several theories of language development. Further, the Survey is adopted in Croatian language providing an opportunity for cross-linguistic analysis and comparisons. Thus, this presentation is the analysis of the Surveys considering the three, four and five year old age groups in two languages: Portuguese and Croatian. It has been applied to 393 parents/caregivers in both languages from all areas of Portugal and Croatia. The main emphasis in this presentation will be put on those language areas that were significantly valued by parents and caregivers, and on differences between parents/caregivers evaluation regarding the languages. It is considered that the increase of knowledge about language development, associated with a more active role by parents will reflect in a future reduction in the occurrence of disturbances in communication, speech and/ or language.

language scale; parents˛evaluation

nije evidentirano