106 THE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA 



LI. FURTHER NOTES ON EIGHTEEN-MONTHS 



VOCABULARIES 



Miriam E. Oatman-Blachly 



Norman, Oklahoma 



A year ago I presented to this Academy at some length my 

 reasons for studying the vocabularies of children at eighteen months. 

 Among them are' the following : At this age it is generally possible 

 for even the untrained observer to make a fairly adequate record 

 of a child's vocabulary; which is not likely to be the case much 

 earlier. At eighteen months speech is still so elementary that 

 analysis reveals much of the actual workings of baby minds. Since 

 modern psychology demonstrates the very great importance of the 

 earliest impressions, in fixing mental habits and attitudes that per- 

 sist throughout life, it is the duty, of the educator to learn what 

 these vocabularies have to tell in regard to the infant's ideas and 

 interests. 



Surprisingly little has been done along this line. A careful 

 search of all available literature shows that sixteen vocabularies 

 have been published of eighteen-months-old English-speaking chil- 

 dren. Some are given in full, while in other instances only the total 

 number of words used is stated. Twelve of the published vocabu- 

 laries are those of girls. One of the four boys' vocabularies is that 

 of my elder son. 



With the help of my friends I have collected twenty-three ad- 

 ditional cases, sixteen cases of boy's vocabularies and seven of 

 girl's vocabularies. Most of those who have furnished this ma- 

 terial are well-educated persons, but there are probably certain 

 errors in the statistics, as there are undoubtedly discrepancies in 

 the methods which have been used by various individuals in collect- 

 ing and arranging the vocabularies which have been published 

 hitherto. 



It is my hope to collect at least fifty cases, divided as equally 

 as possible between boys and girls, and to make a detailed study 

 of these. At present I am prepared to give only a few very general 

 results ; which, as will be seen, are so inconclusive that it is impossi- 

 ble to make deductions from them. 



Published Cases. 



Name Sex Source Total 



Words 



1 Allee Male 10 1 



2 Gary Male 7 60 



3 Gale 2 Male 5 113 



4 Oatman-Blachly Male 1 113 



5 Nice 2 Female 10 



