The two studies presented here explore the relationship between
children's pragmatic skills and their growth in grammar. In study
1,
thirty normally developing children were videotaped interacting with
their parents at 1;2 and again at 2;7. Using correlational and regression
techniques, we found that pragmatic accomplishments of MUTUAL ATTENTION, as well as mother's conversational style, explained
45% of
the variance in grammar at 2;7. The second study investigated
pragmatic–grammatical relationships with data from 6 high-functioning
children with autism. To control for individual variation in skill level
at
the start of the study, within-individual growth rates for grammar were
estimated as our outcome. The results substantiated those of study 1, in
that pragmatic accomplishments within mutual attention predicted the
per month growth rate in grammar. We interpret these findings as
consistent with the position that the infant's social-pragmatic skills
contribute to the acquisition of grammar.