Productie in taal en cognitieve flexibiliteit bij kleuters

Abstract

Aim: It is known that general language skills of children influence the development of cognitive flexibility. It is still unknown to what extent specific production of language influences cognitive flexibility. The current study researched therefore the relationship between production in language and cognitive flexibility in children aged five of six, correcting for intelligence. Method: A total of 50 monolingual Dutch children, without a diagnosis have participated in the study. Subtests of the TAK and WNV-NL and the drawing test of Karmiloff-Smith and the WUG-test were taken individually from the children. The results were analysed by means of an ordinal regression analysis. Results: The results show that production in language does not have a significant positive effect on cognitive flexibility. The relationship is also not significant when corrected for intelligence. Conclusion: The current study does not show that production in language has a positive effect on cognitive flexibility when corrected for intelligence. In order to gain more insight into the relationship between the variables, it is important to continue to investigate the relationship between language production and cognitive flexibility, possibly by means of a bigger sample and the use of valid instruments.