As selecting infants from 18 months to 24 months and their 105 daycare teachers in Seoul and Gyeonggi province as research subjects, this study is to research what relationship exists among infant temperament perceived by daycare teachers, teacher-inf...
As selecting infants from 18 months to 24 months and their 105 daycare teachers in Seoul and Gyeonggi province as research subjects, this study is to research what relationship exists among infant temperament perceived by daycare teachers, teacher-infant interaction, and vocabulary. This study estimated the vocabulary of the infants by using MCDI-K (The MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory-Korean) of Bae So-Young (2003). This study estimated infant temperament perceived by daycare teachers by using Revised Infant Temperament Questionnaire (RITQ) that Jang Jong-Yoon (2010) modified again for teachers, based on what Yoo Myeong-Hee (1990) had revised and adapted. This study estimated the teacher-infant interaction by using a modified estimating tool that Hong Geun-Min (1997) revised infant programs (infant-teacher interaction) into five point scale from ‘an Assessment Scale for Early Childhood Programs in Korea’, which Kang Suk-Hyun (1994) had made, based on Assessment Profile for Early Childhood Programs(APECP). The researcher distributed and collected the questionnaires and checklists through direct visits or mail. Depending on research problems, this study analyzed the collected and analyzed data by conducting average, standard deviation, Independent two-sample t-test, and partial correlation analysis.
This research has results as follows.
First, the infants from 18 months to 24 months showed that the point of understanding vocabulary was twice as high as the point of expression vocabulary, and there were significant gender difference between boys and girls. The infant temperament perceived by daycare teachers was higher in order of reaction intensity and activity level, and regularity was the lowest. Indeed, this study found that daycare teachers consider that the infant temperament as expressions on reactions are strong, there is a lot of activity, and physiological cycle is relatively regular. In addition, in sensitivity of the sub elements there was significant gender difference between boys and girls. The teacher-infant interaction was higher in order of promoting active participation and positive interaction. Indeed, this study found that the daycare teachers consider that enough time and space could be provided to help infants actively search play space and rest and they actively participate in positive interaction with the infants.
Second, as researching a relationship between the infant temperaments perceived by daycare teachers and vocabulary, the regularity among sub elements has significant relations with the understanding vocabulary, and the sensitivity has significant relations with expression and understanding vocabulary and whole vocabulary. Indeed, when the infants are less susceptible to change and stimulation due to regular physiological cycle such as defecation, sleeping, and meal and their low sensitivity level, the infants are significantly related to the high level of expression and understanding vocabulary and total vocabulary.
Third, as a result of researching the relations between the teacher-infant interaction and vocabulary, this study cannot find a significant relation.
In conclusion, regularity and sensitivity of the infant temperaments perceived by daycare teachers are related to understanding and acquiring vocabulary of the infants, but teacher-infant interaction does not have relation with vocabulary acquisition of the infants.