Toddlers Understand Whole Better Than Parts

For toddlers, understanding the difference between "doggy" and "tail" may present a challenge.

Children in the early stages of language acquisition are more likely to attribute new vocabulary to whole objects rather than parts, shows a study in the current issue of Developmental Psychology. The authors introduced 48 12- to 19-month olds to novel words accompanied by a two-part object such as a cup with a lid. They found that children spent more time looking at the entire object even when one part of the object was highlighted to be visually interesting, suggesting a bias toward associating new words with whole objects rather than parts.

To help children better learn vocabulary for parts of objects, authors suggest parents make an effort to explain or illustrate the part's function and point or find another way to distinguish the specific part from the whole object.

ABSTRACT: Young children associate novel words with complex objects rather than salient parts.