Developmental trends in semantic fluency in preschool children

Semantic fluency is a measure of verbal functioning and cognitive flexibility. Its development is particularly rapid in preschool years. The goal of this study was to examine semantic fluency in preschool children in relation to child's age and gender. The sample for this study comprised 133 children aged 3-6 years (mean age = 56.7 months; SD = 11.1 months) from Canton Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina. In relation to child's gender, there were 62 girls (46.6%) and 71 boys (53.8%). We used three different semantic fluency categories: animals, food and music instruments. The results of this study confirmed the effect of age on semantic fluency improvement. However, there were slightly different developmental trends for boys and girls in semantic fluency tasks. Girls achieved higher mean scores in all three semantic fluency tasks, but statistically significant differences were only for the category of music instruments. Given the rapid growth in semantic fluency in preschool children, it is very important to actively promote its development in early years.