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Academic Paper

Title:	Language skills in shy and non-shy preschoolers and the effects of assessment context
Author:	Katherine A Spere
Institution:	University of Guelph
Author:	Mary Ann Evans
Institution:	University of Guelph
Author:	Carol-Anne Hendry
Institution:	University of Guelph
Author:	Jubilea Mansell
Institution:	University of Guelph
Linguistic Field:	Applied Linguistics
Abstract:	Nineteen shy, twenty-three middle and twenty-five non-shy junior kindergarten children were assessed at school by an unfamiliar examiner, and at home where their parents administered a parallel form of the expressive and receptive vocabulary tests given at school. A speech sample between the child and parent was also collected at home. Shy children spoke less than non-shy and middle children at home. Additionally, the parents of shy children spoke less than parents of non-shy children. Although there were no language differences between the groups, results showed a context effect for expressive vocabulary, in that all groups of children scored higher at school. The pattern of results suggests that previously observed language differences found between shy and non-shy children are not robust, and that testing children at school does not negatively impact their performance.

	This article appears in Journal of Child Language Vol. 36, Issue 1, which you can read on Cambridge's site or on LINGUIST .

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