... which were prominent from around 1870 until approximately 1926. Although diary studies were still ongoing at this time they were overshadowed by the appearance of large sample studies. Large sample studies began to take place around 1926 until approximately 1957, which was a relatively short period in comparison to rival studies. 1957 saw the emergence of longitudinal studies, which is the method still used today. The first major studies on child language acquisition, diary studies, were also named 'baby biographies' by some linguists. Diary studies formed a major part of language acquisition from 1876 however, the introduction of large sample studies appeared to overshadow this method. Diary studies are very much self-explanatory in their method but have been known to be very ambiguous in their observations. Many diarists recorded achievements including motor skills and in the case of Preyer (1889), even musical awareness, in addition to the child's language ...

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