本研究的主要目的在探討台灣幼兒對漢字字型的認知以及是 否能區別書寫和畫畫的不同。共計有145 位四至六歲台灣東部某 城鎮幼兒參與本研究，幼兒必須判別七種不同的文字和兩種圖形 是否為文字，以及回答書寫和畫畫是否有所不同。針對幼兒的回 答，本研究分別進行了質性以及量化的分析。研究結果顯示，台 灣幼兒大略將文字分為中文方塊漢字以及由字母組成的英文字。 中文字必須是整齊的、有數筆橫豎勾撇，可以有口但不可以有圓 圈或三角形。英文可以比中文字長但也必須是整齊的、不可以有 圓圈。四歲是台灣幼兒開始建立文字樣貌概念的時期。

This study focused on how Taiwanese young children's perception of what a word is and what elements should be included in a word. The investigation included 145 subjects ranging from 4 to 6 years old from middle to low social economic status families in a mid-size city of eastern Taiwan. Subjects were shown words from seven different languages and two figures and were asked to decide whether it is a word. All the subjects’ answers were analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively. The results suggest that Taiwanese children think that a word must be either look like Chinese characters or English alphabets. They believe that Chinese characters should include some strokes, squares, but not circles or triangles, and should look tidy. English could be longer than Chinese words, but should be orderly and have no circles. Around age four, Taiwanese young children seem to start constructing their concepts about word characteristics.