680

INFANT NOVELTY PREFERENCE IN RELATION TO TODDLER LANGUAGE AND SYMBOLIC PLAY IN A FINNISH LONGITUDINAL STUDY

A. -M. Poikkeus, P. Lyytinen, K. Heiskanen;Nikula, & T. Ahonen

Department of Psychology, University of Jyvaskyla, P.O. Box 35, 40351 Jyvlskyll, Finland

Measures of infant information processing have been shown to be valid predictors of childhood intellectual development (Bornstein & Sigman, 1986). The relation between infant recognition memory and later IQ appears to be largely, although not solely, due to the association of both measures with language. Infant novelty scores also correlate with later measures of specific cognitive abilities, such as measures of comprehension and production, reading skills, quantitative skills, visual perceptual skills, and memory (Rose, Feldman & Wallace, 1992; Rose & Feldman, 1995). More mature infant habituation has been shown to predict greater comprehension and a higher percentage of pretense play in toddlers (Tamis- LeMonda & Bornstein, 1989). These recent findings suggest that the most fruitful direction for further inquiry is the assessment of infant information processing measures in relation to a variety of specific abilities at early ages and within a longitudinal design. Employment of also other risk groups than preterms is needed in order to obtain information on the differential predictive validity of these measures. The utility of this kind of approach is supported by the finding of Rose, Feldman and Wallace (1992) showing that children who were below normal in language, reading, and/or quantitative skills at 6 years of age, and therefore can be considered to be at risk for learning problems, had lower infant visual recognition memory scores.

The subjects of this study comprise a subsample of the Jyvaskyla Longitudinal Study on early language development and the precursors of reading skills. The research project involves a comprehensive follow-up of children born to families with at least one dyslexic parent and familial background of reading difficulties (at risk -group) and the follow-up of a matched control group. The goal of the present analyses is to investigate the relation between infant visual recognition memory and toddler language skills and play. Videorecorded assessment of visual recognition memory took place at 6 months of age using six stimulus pairs (abstract patterns and faces) adapted from those used by Rose et al. (1989). The novelty preference scores in this sample were comparable to those reported in the literature. In accordance with earlier studies, an association was found between infant recognition memory and toddler language abilities. The novelty score for faces correlated significantly with the parental reports on their child’s vocabulary production at both 14 months and 18 months. Surprisingly, no associations were found between the infant novelty scores and comprehension. A marginally significant correlation was found between the novelty score for faces and expressive vocabulary as assessed by the Reynell Developmental Language Scales. No correlations, however, were evident between the novelty scores and the 18 month symbolic play score.