The Development of Young Children’s Metalinguistic Understanding of the Word

Developmental patterns in young children’s segmentation ability within the aural and visual contexts were studied as an indication of their developing metalinguistic ability and cognitive clarity. As tested by an ANOV A, increasing proficiency in segmentation ability among students at each reading ability (nonreadiness, readiness, reader) were exhibited. The interaction effect between reading ability and aural or visual contexts was significant. Results support the conclusion that children gradually learn to adopt a metalinguistic view of language.