Expressive Vocabulary Skills Research Articles

ANALYSIS OF EXPRESSIVE AND RECEPTIVE KENYAN SIGN LANGUAGE SKILLS AMONG PRIMARY DEAF CHILDREN IN WESTERN REGION, KENYA

Research has shown that deaf children of hearing parents, who constitute 95% of the deaf community, find challenges in acquiring both sign and spoken languages. This study examined the competence of deaf children in Kenyan Sign Language. The study developed sign language tools in receptive and expressive vocabulary skills. These were sign order, conversation, placement and picture descriptive as a measure. In the majority of the assessment task, there were clear indicators of age effects, family background whether-deaf or hearing, and amount of contact with skilled signers. In the interview section, children tended to answer questions with short responses. The language was only reached at age ten. In a number of cases, simple questions were misunderstood and irrelevant answers were given. It was noted that the interaction with deaf children of deaf parents (DCDP) was very cordial as opposed to deaf children of hearing parents (DCHP). The picture description did not elicit proficient signing as was expected. The story description was not easy to understand and internalize because of the ambiguity of the children’s signing. This was because there was no indication of the protagonist. In sign order, ages ten to eleven did not seem to understand spatial grammar reliably. This test worked better in its receptive version.<p> </p><p><strong> Article visualizations:</strong></p><p><img src="/-counters-/soc/0715/a.php" alt="Hit counter" /></p>

Bilingualism and second-order theory of mind development in autistic children over time: Longitudinal relations with language, executive functions, and intelligence.

Theory of Mind has long been studied as a core weakness in autism spectrum disorder due to its relationship with social reciprocity, while bilingualism has been shown to compensate for autistic individuals' mentalizing weaknesses. However, our knowledge of the Theory of Mind developmental trajectories of bilingual and monolingual autistic children, as well as of the factors related to Theory of Mind development in autism spectrum disorder is still limited. The current study has examined first- and second-order Theory of Mind skills in 21 monolingual and 21 bilingual autistic children longitudinally across three time points, specifically at ages 6, 9, and 12, and also investigated associations between Theory of Mind trajectories and trajectories of the children's language, intelligence and executive function skills. The results reveal that bilingual autistic children outperformed their monolingual peers in second-order Theory of Mind at ages 9 and 12, and that intelligence and, especially, expressive vocabulary skills played a pivotal role in advancing bilingual autistic children's second-order Theory of Mind development. On the other hand, monolingual autistic children only managed to capitalize on their language and intelligence resources at age 12. The findings highlight the importance of investigating bilingualism effects on autistic children's advanced cognitive abilities longitudinally.

Metaphor comprehension and production in verbally able children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Research in the field of figurative language processing in Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) has demonstrated that autistic individuals experience systematic difficulties in the comprehension of different types of metaphors. However, there is scarce evidence regarding metaphor production skills in ASD. Importantly, the exact source of metaphor processing difficulties in ASD remains largely controversial. The debate has mainly focused on the mediating role of structural language skills (i.e., lexical knowledge) and cognitive abilities (i.e., Theory of Mind and executive functions) in ASD individuals' ability to comprehend and generate metaphors. The present study examines metaphor comprehension and production in 18 Greek-speaking verbally able children with ASD and 31 typically-developing (TD) controls. Participants completed two tasks, namely, a low-verbal multiple-choice sentence-picture matching task that tested their ability to comprehend conventional predicate metaphors, and a sentence continuation task that assessed their ability to generate metaphors. The study also included measures of fluid intelligence, expressive vocabulary, and working memory within the sample. The results show that the ASD group had significantly lower performance than the TD group in both metaphor comprehension and production. The findings also reveal that expressive vocabulary skills were a key factor in the metaphor comprehension and production performance of the children with ASD. Working memory capacity was also found to correlate significantly with metaphor comprehension performance in the ASD group. Conversely, no correlations were found in the TD group with neither of the above factors. Of note, children with ASD generated significantly more inappropriate responses and no-responses to the metaphor production task compared with the control group. The overall results reveal that children with ASD had difficulty with both comprehending and using metaphorical language. The findings also indicate that TD children may employ diverse cognitive strategies or rely on different underlying skills when processing metaphors compared with children with ASD.

Cross-modal digit span and vocabulary proficiency in deaf or hard-of-hearing children.

This study aims to examine the relationship between vocabulary proficiency and short-term memory capacity in deaf or hard-of-hearing (DHH) children. We test the hypothesis that the relationship between vocabulary skills and digit span performance could be strengthened when the digit span task encompasses cross-modal integration processes. A group of DHH children performed two types of auditory digit span tasks. Furthermore, they participated in a standardized vocabulary proficiency test, comprising two subtests: Receptive Vocabulary and Expressive Vocabulary. The verbal digit span served as a significant predictor of Expressive Vocabulary among the DHH children. Simultaneously, the auditory-pointing digit span accounted for a substantial portion of performance variation in both Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary. After considering the impact of the duration of auditory-verbal intervention through regression models, likelihood ratio tests demonstrated that the auditory-pointing digit span persisted as a significant determinant of both receptive and expressive vocabulary skills. A positive influence of the intervention was also confirmed by the present results. This study provides evidence that memory span and the ability to integrate cross-modal information could serve as significant cognitive correlates of vocabulary proficiency in DHH children.

What else will I do when I start school? Preschoolers’ wh-questions in dinnertime conversations and their language development

While it is established that parental wh-questions, as a high-quality language input, are associated with child language outcome, less is known about the role of children’s wh-questions in their language development. This study examines whether children’s wh-questions during a dinnertime conversation are associated with their receptive and expressive language skills. The sample consists of a unique group of bilingual children: 32 Chinese preschoolers (aged 3–5 years) in Norway. At the onset of the study, parents self-recorded a dinnertime conversation with the target child and other family members present. Over the following year, we assessed children’s receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, and narrative skills in Chinese three times. Individual growth modeling revealed that concurrently, the density of children’s wh-questions was associated with children’s expressive vocabulary and narrative skills, but the association faded when controlling for family demographics. Significantly, even when accounting for all control variables, children’s wh-questions predicted their receptive vocabulary growth across one year. These findings underline children’s active role in shaping their language learning and development. This study also contributes to our understanding of bilingual children’s home language development. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.

Early gesture use predicts children's language development in South Korea: New evidence supporting the cross-cultural importance of pointing.

Research in the U.S. and other Western countries shows that children's early gesture use, which starts prior to verbal communication, is an important predictor of children's later language development. Despite increasing efforts to study gesture use in diverse contexts, most of our knowledge on the role of gesture is largely based on populations of Western countries. In this study, we add to the growing body of international research by examining gesture use by 31 mothers and their 14-month-old infants (12 girls) in South Korea and investigate the gestures used during interaction, and whether early gesture use at 14months predicts Korean children's later language skills at 36months. The results showed that in addition to using gestures observed in other cultural contexts, Korean mother-child dyads used culturally specific gesture (i.e., bowing), showing an early sign of socialization that starts with preverbal children. In addition, Korean infants' index-finger pointing, but not showing and giving, predicted their later receptive and expressive vocabulary skills at 36months, providing additional support for the importance of pointing in early language development.

Fine motor skills and their link to receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, and narrative language skills

A growing body of research suggests that fine motor skills (FMS) are associated with language development. In this study, we examined 76 children aged 3–6 years assessing the link between language and FMS. Specific measures included receptive and expressive vocabulary, oral narrative skills, and various fine motor tasks. Hierarchical linear regressions revealed that FMS predicted receptive and expressive vocabulary as well as oral narrative skills. Overall, FMS were most strongly linked to children’s oral narrative skills. Educational implications, as well as limitations and the need for further studies on the link between language and FMS, are discussed.

The Influence of Language and Cognitive Skills on Narrative Retelling for Preschoolers with and without Specific Language Impairment

Objectives: This study aimed to confirm relationships between language skills (vocabulary, sentence comprehension), cognitive skills (episodic buffer) and narrative retelling in typically developing (TD) children and children with specific language impairment (SLI).Methods: A total of 24 children aged 5 to 6 years participated in this study, including SLI (n= 8) and TD (n= 16). Participants completed a vocabulary test, sentence comprehension test, episodic buffer task, and narrative retelling task. Narratives were analyzed for macrostructure (story grammar). An independent sample <i>t</i>-test was used to examine the difference between groups. And correlation and simple regression analysis was conducted to confirm relationships between narrative retelling and other variables in each group.Results: The SLI group showed significantly lower expressive vocabulary, sentence comprehension, episodic buffer, and narrative retelling skills. In the TD group, there was no significant correlation between narrative retelling skills and other variables. However, a significant correlation was revealed between narrative retelling skills and episodic buffer in the SLI group. Also, the episodic buffer significantly predicted the SLI group’s narrative retelling skills.Conclusion: These results confirmed that narrative retelling requires not just language skills but cognitive skills. Therefore, it is important to consider the role of cognitive skills when planning and implementing intervention for children with SLI. Further studies are required to investigate the likelihood that other language or cognitive skills have an impact on narrative skills.

Interconnected Pathways: Postural Stability and Vocabulary Skills in Preschool-Aged Children.

Previous research has highlighted an interplay between postural abilities and linguistic skills during infancy. However, this relationship could undergo further radical transformations in other periods of development. This current study explored a plausible network of relationships among postural abilities and vocabulary skills in a substantial cohort (N = 222) of preschoolers aged between 2 and 5 years-a developmental phase critical for refining both language and motor competencies. Here, postural stability was measured in terms of balance duration and accuracy, alongside an assessment of comprehension and expressive vocabulary skills. Employing a diverse set of techniques, i.e., data and missing data visualization and multilevel regression analysis, task complexity and age emerged as crucial factors explaining our data. In addition, network analysis indicates that language production plays a central role within postural and language interdomain networks. The resulting discussion focuses on the useful implications of this study for the assessment of typical preschool development, which would benefit from tailored methodological inspections guided by developmental theories that are framed in inter-domain approaches.

Relationship Between Speech Delay and Smart Media in Children: A Systematic Review.

The increasing prevalence of smart media usage among children has raised concerns about its potential impact on various aspects of child development. One such area of worry is speech delay, as early language acquisition is critical for cognitive, social, and educational development. The purpose of this systematic review was to investigate and synthesize available research data in order to determine the association between speech delay and the usage of smart media in children. To perform this systematic review, a thorough literature search was conducted using relevant keywords in electronic databases, such as PubMed, Scopus, PsycINFO, Google Scholar, Web of Science, and Embase. We included studies published during the last 10 years investigating the impact of smart media on children's speech delay using various research designs. The findings showed that extended exposure to electronic media for children was negatively associated with expressive vocabulary and language skills in children, in addition to decreased language scores and speech delays. Educational apps and shared media engagement with parents correlated with stronger language skills.The introduction of smart devices at a later stage of development (24 months of age and older) was associated with positive language development, whereas early introductionwas associated with speech delay. However, six-month abstinence from devices led to speech improvement in the affected children. These findings highlight the need to balance interactive screen time and other forms of interaction to enhance speech development.

Behavior Management and Engagement During Small-Group Instruction as Predictors of Preschoolers’ Literacy Skill Outcomes

ABSTRACT Research Findings: The current study examined whether collective small-group behavioral engagement and teacher behavior management during small-group instruction predicted print knowledge, phonological awareness, letter writing, and expressive vocabulary gains for preschoolers at-risk for literacy difficulties. This study, part of a larger project, included 23 teachers delivering a small-group literacy intervention to 75 preschool children identified as at-risk for literacy difficulties. Hierarchical linear modeling results revealed that collective small-group behavioral engagement was predictive of child expressive vocabulary gains (d = 0.13), but teacher behavior management was not a significant predictor. Practice or Policy: The results demonstrate that high levels of collective small-group behavioral engagement during small-group literacy instruction contributed small positive effects to preschoolers’ expressive vocabulary skills. As many small-group interventions are intended for children at-risk for literacy difficulties, these results are promising because preschool children at-risk for literacy difficulties appear to benefit from the intervention when collective small-group behavioral engagement is high. Including activities that prompt strong child engagement may be a critical factor in realizing the full potential of small-group literacy instruction in young children.

The power of teacher‐toddler relationships and stability of care for language development

AbstractThe value of positive teacher‐child relationships for child development is well established for preschool‐ and school‐age children, but little is known regarding children under the age of 3. The current study examined the links between teacher‐child relationship, stability of care, and toddlers’ expressive vocabulary. It also examined whether the associations between the expressive language and the teacher‐child relationship differ depending on the stability of care. Participants of the study were 212 toddlers (50.9% boys) and 36 teachers. Expressive vocabulary skills were assessed individually across two waves, and relationship quality was reported by teachers in the second wave. Results suggested that closeness was associated positively with expressive vocabulary, whereas neither conflict nor dependency were associated with vocabulary. Prior expressive vocabulary also positively predicted closeness, particularly for children with less stable relationships with teachers. Moreover, children who stayed with the same teacher were more likely to have closer, more dependent, and less conflictual relationships with them.

Vocabulary Breadth and Depth in Early School-Aged Children with Developmental Language Disorder – Evidence from Serbian Speaking Children

Objectives. Taking into account the positive association observed between lexical abilities and academic performance in children, this research aims to compare the expressive vocabulary skills and the organization of the lexical-semantic network in early school-aged children diagnosed with developmental language disorder (DLD) and their typically developing (TD) peers.
 Method. The sample included 57 participants (aged 7 and 8 years), 27 children diagnosed with DLD and 30 TD children. The Boston Naming Test and Word Association Task were employed to assess lexical abilities.
 Results. The findings revealed that children with DLD produced significantly fewer correct answers and a higher number of errors during the naming task when compared to their typically developing peers. Moreover, children with DLD provided significantly fewer developmentally mature types of associations and significantly more developmentally immature ones.
 Conclusion. The study results indicate that children with DLD continue to display significant lexical deficits during school-age, encompassing both vocabulary breadth and depth. These findings highlight the importance of implementing additional intervention approaches that focus on semantic aspects to prevent further language deterioration and mitigate the potential negative impact of lexical impairments on the academic achievements of these children.

Mind the gap: Psycholinguistic and individual factors affecting expressive and receptive vocabulary skills in English-Gaelic bilingual children

AbstractThis study investigated the psycholinguistic and child-related variables that modulate vocabulary development and the so-called receptive–expressive gap in child L2 learners of Gaelic with English as their L1. In total, 50 6- to 8-year-old English-Gaelic bilingual children attending Gaelic-medium immersion education were administered the English and the Gaelic Crosslinguistic Receptive and Expressive Lexical Tasks (CLTs). On the Gaelic CLT, children performed better on nouns than verbs. Accuracy was modulated by item-related variables such as the estimated age when a word is acquired and its morphophonological complexity. The receptive–expressive gap was larger in the minority L2 than in the majority L1 and did not narrow after 1 year of schooling. The gap was smaller for nouns than verbs in English but not in Gaelic. Exposure to English differentially affected the receptive–expressive gap across languages. This study offers new insights into the psycholinguistic and individual factors affecting the receptive–expressive gap in bilingual children in immersion education.

Vocabulary skills of bilingual children: The evidence for context‐dependent performance

AbstractMost bilingual children often display greater proficiency and preference for one of their two languages. Researchers refer to this asymmetry as language dominance. However, despite being possible to determine the overall language dominance in bilinguals, there may be substantial flexibility in their language use. In particular, the relative ease of using each language may depend on the sociolinguistic context and the language of the interlocutor which may affect the ease of accessing words in a given language. In the present work, we investigate whether and how the sociolinguistic context in an International English medium school influences bilingual children's vocabulary production. Specifically, we examine whether bilingual first‐grade children's expressive vocabulary skills vary as a function of the linguistic context (Home/School) and the language (English/Spanish) of their conversational partner. Results showed that contextual factors interacted with child's language performance. The participants' ability to name objects in Spanish was affected by the conversational partner's language, and their ability to name Home‐context words varied by language. The findings of this investigation highlight the importance of considering sociolinguistic factors when evaluating bilingual children's language skills.

Word Learning With Orthographic Support in Nonspeaking and Minimally Speaking School-Age Autistic Children.

Previous research has demonstrated that typically developing children, verbal children with a diagnosis of autism, children with Down syndrome, children with developmental language disorder, and children with dyslexia can all benefit from orthographic support during word learning tasks. This study sought to determine if minimally speaking or nonspeaking children with a diagnosis of autism would also demonstrate an orthographic facilitation effect during a computer-based remote word learning task. Twenty-two school-age children with a diagnosis of autism and little to no spoken language learned four novel words by contrasting the words with known objects. Two novel words were taught with orthographic support present, and two were taught without orthographic support. Participants were exposed to the words a total of 12 times and then given an immediate posttest to assess identification. Parent report measures of receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, autism symptomatology, and reading skills were also collected. During learning tasks, participants performed equally well whether orthographic support was given or not. For the posttest, however, participants performed significantly better for words that were taught with orthographic support. The presence of orthography improved accuracy and supported a greater number of participants to reach the passing criterion compared to the absence of orthography. Orthographic representations aided the word learning of those with lower expressive language significantly more than those with higher expressive language. Minimally speaking or nonspeaking children with a diagnosis of autism benefit from orthographic support when learning new words. Further investigation is warranted to determine if this effect holds during face-to-face interactions using augmentative and alternative communication systems. https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.22465492.

The Effects of Language Experience in Both Home and School Environments for Spanish-English Bilingual Children: A Preliminary Study

ABSTRACT The amount of language input bilingual children receive influences their language acquisition. This three-year quasi-longitudinal study determined the extent home language input influences measures of expressive and receptive English vocabulary among Spanish-English school-age bilingual children. The study also determined whether a relationship exists between school of attendance and measures of expressive and receptive English vocabulary among the same group of children. One Spanish-English dual-immersion school and one English-only school in Utah participated in the study. Participants were administered two formal measures of receptive and expressive English once a year for three consecutive years. Results indicate that regardless of their home language, all children demonstrated improvements in receptive and expressive English language skills after three years. Between year one and three, the increase in English receptive language measures were statistically significant among the children who primarily heard Spanish at home. Results revealed that all children made advancements in expressive and receptive vocabulary skills, regardless of their home language and the type of school they attended. Findings suggest that exposure to a language other than English at home is not a detriment to English language development. Additionally, bilingual education is as effective as English-only education in fostering children‘s vocabulary skills in English.

WPPSI-IV and NEPSY-II performance in mono- and bilingual 5-6-year-old children: Findings from The FinSwed Study.

Children's language background relates to their neurocognitive development. Knowledge of this relationship is important as bilingualism is common. However, research regarding language background in relation to performance on cognitive tests such as the WPPSI-IV and NEPSY-II is scarce. The present study compared WPPSI-IV and NEPSY-II performances between 5- and 6-year-old Swedish-speaking monolingual (n=45) and Swedish-Finnish-speaking simultaneous bilingual (n=34) children in Finland. The participants were gathered by stratified sampling and were assessed with the Swedish versions of the tests. In profile analyses, a significant monolingual advantage was found in some WPPSI-IV subtests and indexes requiring expressive vocabulary (Vocabulary, Similarities, PictureNaming, and Vocabulary Acquisition Index) and visuospatial skills (Object Assembly and Visual Spatial Index). No group differences were found between mono- and bilingual children in receptive language, visual memory, or fluid intelligence. Additionally, no differences were found on the Full Scale IQ. The performance on the WPPSI-IV Similarities subtest improved in a subgroup of bilinguals when answers in both Swedish and Finnish were accounted for, instead of accepting only answers in Swedish. No significant differences were found between mono- and bilinguals on the language and memory tasks of NEPSY-II. These findings highlight the importance of considering the child's language background when assessing expressive language in young children, as well as the benefits of assessing bilinguals in both of their languages.

The Effect of a Dialogic Reading Program on the Early Literacy Skills of Children in Preschool Period

The aim of this study is to examine the effect of an dialogic reading program on expressive language vocabulary and category naming skills, which are among the early literacy skills of preschool children. The research was designed in the quasi-experimental model, which is one of the quantitative research methods. The sample of the study consisted of a total of 30 children, 15 girls and 15 boys, between 64 and 72 months of age, who attended a kindergarten in Konya. Fifteen of the children were in the control group and 15 of them were in the experimental group. In addition to the existing preschool education program applied to the groups within the scope of the study, a 10-week dialogic reading program was applied to the experimental group. In the research, "Demographic Information Form" was used as the data collection tool and "Early Literacy Test (ELT)" was used as pre-test and post-test. According to the results of the research, the post-test scores of all groups' expressive language vocabulary and category naming skills increased significantly compared to the pre-test scores. However, the post-test scores of expressive language vocabulary and category naming skills of the experimental group were significantly higher than the control group. Accordingly, it was concluded that the dialogic reading program applied significantly increased the expressive language vocabulary and category naming skills, which are among the early literacy skills.

Executive functioning and verbal fluency performance in youth with Down syndrome

BackgroundExecutive functioning (EF) is an area of challenge for individuals with Down syndrome (DS) associated with a variety of downstream difficulties. Verbal fluency performance is one potential downstream effect that is commonly assessed in individuals with DS due to the measure’s utility as a predictor of dementia. Verbal fluency requires individuals to inhibit irrelevant responses, shift between groupings of related words, and monitor to prevent repetition, all skills related to EF. AimsThis study aimed to determine the association between semantic verbal fluency performance and three EF subdomains (inhibition, shifting, and working memory) in youth with DS after taking into account vocabulary and cognitive ability. Methods and proceduresNeuropsychological assessments (verbal and visuospatial), and parent reports of EF, were completed at one time point by 69 youth with DS 6–17 years old and their caregivers. Expressive and receptive vocabulary skills and cognitive ability were also assessed. Outcomes and resultsThe results revealed that verbal fluency performance was significantly associated with neuropsychological assessments of EF and parent report of inhibition even after controlling for the effects of vocabulary and cognitive ability. Conclusions and implicationsThe findings highlight the underlying importance of EF in verbal fluency tasks in youth with DS.