DEVELOPMENTAL ANTECEDENTS OF TAXONOMIC AND THEMATIC STRATEGIES AT 3 YEARS OF AGE

Individual differences in children's conceptual strategies at 3 years were predicted by several aspects of children's behavior and language at 13 and 24 months of age. Production of pointing gestures at 13 months and production of nouns and attributive adjectives at 24 months were positively associated with the use of a taxonomic matching strategy at 3 years of age. Alternatively, an early interest in functional-relational play behavior at 13 months and the production of relational terms at 24 months were positively associated with the tendency to use a thematic conceptual strategy at 3 years of age. Individual perceptual-cognitive processing styles are tentatively proposed as a persisting epigenetic mechanism underlying these individual differences across early sensorimotor, language, and conceptual development.