Children's Vocabulary Research Articles

Айтрекинг в нейропсихологическом исследовании особенностей зрительного гнозиса детей с нарушением слуха

<p>The article is devoted to the problem of assessing the state of visual gnosis in children with hearing impairment in order to identify possible mechanisms for compensating for uneven development of mental functions and assessing the possibilities of remedial education. We combined the research potential of the classical neuropsychological approach with the eye-tracking methodology in order to study in detail through eye movements the uneven development of auditory, visual and verbal functions in information processing in children with hearing impairment. The task was to conduct not only a classical neuropsychological assessment of visual gnosis in children with hearing impairment, but also to obtain new data on eye tracking during neuropsychological tests. The study involved cochlearly implanted preschoolers with hearing impairment (N=15) and typically developing preschoolers (N=16) aged 5 to 7 years (M=6.1; SD=0.5). At the first stage, classical neuropsychological tests for visual gnosis were conducted, at the second stage, eye tracking was used to record eye movements during neuropsychological tests by preschoolers. Our study confirms the weakness of visual information processing processes during neuropsychological tests in children with hearing impairment. Analysis of eye movement strategies recorded by the eye tracker during neuropsychological tests allowed us to identify a number of features of visual information processing in children with hearing impairment: chaotic search, changes in the recognition sequence, decreased noticeability (“recognizability”) of images or decreased interest (duration of fixations and viewing), weakness of the holistic strategy and synthesis, fragmentation of perception. The duration of the scanning path, spatial density of fixations, scanning regularity, and scanning direction during image recognition differ. Features of the visual search strategy are observed in the number of switches, fixation time, and patterns of gaze transitions between areas of interest. In children with impairments, when performing tests for visual gnosis, an increase in the time of fixations is recorded, which indicates the cognitive complexity of perception. The combination of weakness in the processing of auditory and visual information leads to diffuseness, incorrectness of the correlation of the image of an object and its verbal designation due to the poverty of the vocabulary of children with hearing impairments.</p>

Parents Plus: A Parent-Implemented Intervention for Preschool Children With Developmental Language Disorders.

Parent engagement is a critical component of optimizing services for young children with disabilities, including those with language disorders. Without training, however, many parents may lack the knowledge and skills to effectively facilitate their children's language development during the essential early childhood years. The Parents Plus intervention was designed to support parents, through online training and coaching, in using focused stimulation, an evidence-based strategy for fostering early language development. Thirty-one parents and their children with developmental language disorder participated in a small-scale randomized controlled trial to provide a preliminary test of Parents Plus. Sixteen parent-child dyads completed the Parents Plus intervention, while 15 parent-child dyads were in the control condition. Findings indicate that Parents Plus shows promise in improving children's vocabulary and morphosyntactic skills. Additionally, Parents Plus emerged as a socially valid approach, with parents reporting that its goals, content, procedures, and outcomes were acceptable. Implications for education and directions for future research are discussed.

To Touch or Not to Touch: The Role of Vocabulary and Object Exploration in Children's Attention to Shape.

Children's ability to identify relevant object features, such as shape, plays a key role in learning object names. However, successful attention to shape (shape bias) is dependent on other factors, including children's vocabulary size as well as opportunities for object exploration. The current study explored the combined impact of both vocabulary and object exploration on attention to shape and their cascading impact on retention of object labels. Here, 336 17-to-30-month-old children completed a Novel Noun Generalization (NNG) task and were tested on retention of exemplar name-object pairings. Children in a pre-familiarization condition physically explored objects before every trial; children in a no-familiarization condition did not. Vocabulary (via MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory) significantly predicted attention to shape, and higher rates of shape-match exploration yielded a stronger shape bias. However, object exploration did not impact NNG performance or retention, and children struggled to retain word-referent mappings. Though attention to shape is thought to support learning, exploratory analyses revealed that children's NNG performance did not predict retention. The results suggest that vocabulary significantly influences word learning processes but object exploration may not offer support. Future research should consider how task demands and other cognitive abilities impact word learning.

Exploring the relations between teachers' high-quality language features and preschoolers and kindergarteners' vocabulary learning.

This study explored the use of sophisticated vocabulary, complex syntax, and decontextualized language (including book information, conceptual information, past/future experiences, and vocabulary information) in teachers' instructional interactions with children during the literacy block in prekindergarten and kindergarten classrooms. The sample included 33 teachers and 421 children. We examined correlations among these language features and their unique contributions to children's vocabulary learning. Teachers who used more sophisticated vocabulary also engaged in more decontextualized talk about vocabulary and past/future experiences. Additionally, teachers' use of complex syntax was uniquely associated with talk about conceptual information. Both complex syntax and conceptual information talk predicted children's vocabulary learning; however, complex syntax emerged as the sole predictor when accounting for this relationship. This finding suggests that decontextualized talk about concepts, characterized by complex language structures, may facilitate vocabulary acquisition.

Picturebooks Increase the Frequency and Diversity of Emotion Vocabulary in Children’s Language Environments: Modeling Potential Benefits to Emotional Literacy, with Pedagogical Resources

ABSTRACT Research Findings: This study examines the frequency and diversity of emotion vocabulary in children’s picturebooks, as well as its deviation from typical spoken language environments. We analyzed a corpus of 2146 transcripts of individuals reading picturebooks aloud on social media platforms, using an emotion-specific vocabulary list, and two emotion-related word lists: the Valence Aware Dictionary for Sentiment Reasoning (VADER) List, and the NRC Word-Emotion Lexicon Intensity Lists. Models of daily input assess how regular book reading impacts the diversity and quantity of emotion vocabulary in children’s language environments. The findings reveal that emotion vocabulary in children’s picturebooks is more diverse than found in typical samples of child-directed speech and that regular reading substantially increases exposure to emotion vocabulary in the language environment of children beyond their input from child-directed speech alone. The study underscores the significant role of regular picturebook reading in enriching children’s quantity and quality of emotion vocabulary exposure and the opportunities this may provide for emotional literacy development. Practice or Policy: The findings are supplemented with emotion vocabulary wordlists produced by the study and provided here (https://tinyurl.com/4pvcb8b4). These constitute new resources for supporting children’s emotion vocabulary acquisition during early education and development.

지방 중·소도시 지역아동센터 아동들의 어휘 및 읽기 발달 현황

Purpose: This study aimed to examine the receptive and expressive vocabulary and reading achievement of children attending community children's centers in small and medium-sized cities to identify the current status of vocabulary and reading development of children attending community children's centers. Method: Vocabulary and reading achievement tests were conducted on 82 children attending four community children's centers in A City, a medium-sized city. Based on the test results, receptive and expressive vocabulary and reading achievement status were analyzed, the types of reading disorders of children identified as reading disabled were analyzed, and the distribution of children with overlapping vocabulary delay and reading disorders was investigated. Results: First, 41.4% of all children showed a delay in expressive vocabulary, and 52.4% showed a delay in receptive vocabulary. Second, 55.9% of all children showed significantly low achievement in the reading achievement test. Third, among the children with reading disability, 80% of the lower grades had difficulty in word recognition. On the other hand, 55.6% of the upper grades had difficulty in word recognition, and 38.9% of the children showed difficulty in reading fluency. Fourth, among the children with vocabulary delay or reading disability, 66.7% of the children showed overlapping vocabulary delay and reading disability. Conclusion: Because a high rate of children in community children's centers shows vocabulary delay and reading difficulties, it was suggested that language and reading support should be provided to children using community children's centers, and administrative and financial support is needed for this.

Language Development of Japanese Children Raised in Institutional Care.

Nurturing environments have a critical influence on children's language development. It is unclear to what extent nurturing environments in institutions influence children's language development. The present study investigated the early lexical development in Japanese children raised in institutional care (IC) (N = 86; 10-33 months; 37 boys) and compared their lexical skills to a large sample of age peers being raised in biological family care (BFC) (N = 1897; 937 boys) using vocabulary checklists. Our results present three main findings: (1) Japanese IC children did not exhibit a delay in productive vocabulary compared with BFC children, although their comprehensive vocabulary was delayed; (2) IC children who experienced maltreatment showed poorer vocabulary scores than non-maltreated IC children; (3) both the duration at the institution and the number of books read to them significantly predicted children's vocabulary scores. Our study suggests that the Japanese institutions included in the present study did not show a negative impact, at least on productive vocabulary, and may competently foster children's language development. We discussed the relationship between institutional environments and children's language development.

Complex meanings shape early noun and verb vocabulary structure and learning.

Verbs and nouns vary in many ways-including in how they are used in language and in the timing of their early learning. We compare the distribution of semantic features that comprise early acquired verb and noun meanings and measure their effect on learning. First, couched in prior literature, we use semantic feature data to establish that features pattern on a hierarchy of complexity, with perceptual features being less complex than other features like encyclopaedic features. Second, given overall semantic and syntactic differences between nouns and verbs, we hypothesize that the preference for directly perceptible features observed for nouns will be attenuated for verbs. Building on prior work using semantic features and semantic networks in nouns, we find that compared to early learned nouns (N = 359), early learned verbs (N = 103) have meanings disproportionately built from complex information inaccessible to the senses. Third, we find that 16- to 30-month-old children's early noun and verb vocabularies (N = 3,804) show semantic relationships that differ in their use of this complex information from the beginning of vocabulary development. Last, we find that the complexity of nouns' and verbs' meanings affects their typical order of learning in early vocabulary development. Complexity differs in early noun and verb meanings, affects the semantic structure of children's vocabularies, and shapes the course of word learning. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

The Influence of Word Characteristics on Preschoolers' Vocabulary Learning

Purpose: One challenge to the design and delivery of effective vocabulary intervention is the selection of vocabulary targets. The purpose of this study was to examine the relation of word characteristics to vocabulary learning from explicit vocabulary intervention. Method: This study was a secondary analysis of data from two recent efficacy studies of an explicit vocabulary intervention delivered to preschool children ( Story Friends ). Taught vocabulary words were coded for concreteness, imageability, and shape using the perceptual accessibility continuum. Results: Multilevel modeling indicated that perceptual accessibility predicted vocabulary learning. Of the perceptual accessibility components, concreteness and imageability contributed significantly to the model, but shape did not. Higher vocabulary learning was observed for words rated more perceptually accessible. Conclusions: Preschool children's vocabulary learning was predicted by perceptual accessibility characteristics of taught words. Findings contribute to the body of evidence to guide the selection and sequencing of vocabulary targets for effective vocabulary intervention. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.27183684

Psycholinguistic Studies: Strategies for Acquiring Arabic Vocabulary in Preschool Children

The purpose of this study is to find out the strategy of acquiring Arabic vocabulary in preschool children. The method used in this study is a qualitative method, with a library research approach. The data collection technique used is in the form of documentation techniques. Data analysis techniques with a descriptive-analytical approach. by using the content analysis method. The data sources in this study are references and guidelines related to the problem being researched as literature data. The results of this study show that there are seven strategies that can be applied to acquire Arabic vocabulary in preschool children, including: First, contextual learning strategies. Second, image-based vocabulary acquisition strategies. Third, vocabulary acquisition strategies by singing and rhyme. Fourth, vocabulary acquisition strategies with illustrated stories. Fifth, vocabulary acquisition strategies are based on language games. Sixth, vocabulary acquisition strategies with creative activities, and Seventh, vocabulary acquisition strategies with social interaction. Hopefully, this research can help future research and these strategies can be applied in learning for the acquisition of Arabic vocabulary in preschool children.

Chinese mothers use idioms in shared book reading: A predictor for children's Chinese vocabulary growth?

Idioms play an important role in language; however, little research has examined idioms in children's natural language settings. This study explored idioms usage in maternal talk during mother-child shared book reading and its relation to children's vocabulary development. Thirty-three Chinese children in Norway (aged 3;0-5;5) and their mothers participated. We observed shared reading at the onset of the study and assessed children's receptive and expressive vocabulary in Chinese three times across one year. Results demonstrated that mothers used an average of 1.8 idioms and explained one-third of the idioms. Maternal idiom usage was correlated with their talk amount and lexical diversity. Individual growth modeling revealed that the number of idioms mothers used predicted the growth of children's receptive vocabulary in Chinese. We speculate that idiom usage could be an effective and understudied marker of parental linguistic sophistication. This study underscores the importance of idiom exposure in children's language environment.

The Effects of ‘Dialogic Reading’ on the Development of Mental State Vocabulary in Children with ASD

Objectives: Children with Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have difficulties in understanding thoughts, intentions, and beliefs of others, which are related to the development of theory of mind. The purpose of this study was to facilitate the production of mental state vocabulary related to theory of mind in these children through ‘Dialogic book-reading’ intervention and to verify the intervention and generalization effects.Methods: A “PEER” strategy was conducted with children with ASD. The pattern of mental state vocabulary production was analyzed through a picture task, and generalization effects were examined using a parent-report checklist.Methods: A “PEER” strategy was conducted with children with ASD. The pattern of mental state vocabulary production was analyzed through a picture task, and generalization effects were examined using a parent-report checklist.Conclusion: This study provides evidence for the intervention and generalization effects of the interactive book reading strategy on the production of mental state vocabulary in children with ASD, highlighting the significance of using this strategy in clinical settings for training theory of mind in children with ASD.

Effects of EEG-Neurofeedback in children with Down syndrome

Background. Down syndrome (DS) is a genetic disorder characterized by varying degrees of mental retardation and neurological complications. Children with DS often experience difficulties with attention, concentration, learning, memory, speech, language, behavior, and physical balance. Methods. This study included 11 children with DS and 10 children with ADHD, aged 6 to 10 years who received treatment at the private clinic “Neyromed Servis” in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Cognitive functions were analyzed by using Electroencephalography-neurofeedback (EEG-NFB) and the Forbrain headsets. The Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence and Schulte table were used to assess the effectiveness of non-drug treatment. Results. The utilization of Forbrain headsets enhanced children’s attentiveness as listeners and improved the quality of their voice and speaking. Positive changes in EEG parameters were also registered: theta wave amplitude and theta-tobeta ratio in the frontal lobes decreased significantly. Conclusion. EEG-NFB treatment significantly improved cognitive function, particularly attention, without any side effects in observed children. Moreover, impulsivity as well as hyperactivity decreased gradually. Additionally, after using of the Forbrain method, vocabulary in children improved by 20-40% across all groups.

DEVELOPMENT OF AN INTERACTIVE WEBSITE WITH DIDACTIC GAMES TO ENHANCE VOCABULARY IN YOUNG STUDENTS WITH INTELLECTUAL DISABILITIES

The article investigates the development of a website that includes interactive didactic games designed to improve the vocabulary of primary schoolchildren with intellectual disabilities. It describes the importance of developing vocabulary in children with intellectual disabilities and shows how the game approach can be an effective tool for teaching and developing speech in this category of children. The process of developing a website with didactic games is considered, which includes the selection of appropriate software, interface design, development of interactive tasks and games, as well as testing and improvement of the website. In particular, the article discusses methods and approaches to creating games aimed at developing lexical skills, expanding vocabulary and improving communication skills in children with intellectual disabilities. The advantages of using interactive didactic games in the educational process of junior schoolchildren with intellectual disabilities are highlighted. They stimulate children's interest in learning words and expanding their vocabulary, develop cognitive and speech skills, improve memory and concentration, and increase motivation and enjoyment of learning. A game-based approach can keep children interested, motivated, and effective, helping them to develop their language skills and achieve greater academic success. The website was created on the wix platform. The collection of didactic games was developed on the LearningApps platform. There are various types of tasks, for example quizzes, puzzles, crosswords, matching exercises, etc. Images for didactic games were generated by playground.ai artificial intelligence, which opens up new opportunities for creating visually appealing games and tasks. The importance of developing website with interactive didactic games for the development of vocabulary of younger students with intellectual disabilities is emphasized, they can become an effective tool for teaching and developing speech in children of this category, contributing to their success in learning and overall development.

The role of dyadic combinations of infants' behaviors and caregivers' verbal and multimodal responses in predicting vocabulary outcomes.

There is robust evidence that infants' gestures and vocalisations and caregivers' contingent responses predict later child vocabulary. Recent studies suggest that dyadic combinations of infants' behaviors and caregivers' responses are more robust predictors of children's vocabularies than these behaviors separately. Previous studies have not yet systematically compared different types of dyadic combinations. This study aimed to compare the predictive value of (a) frequencies of infants' behaviors (vocalisations, points, and shows+gives) regardless of caregivers' responses, (b) frequencies of infants' behaviors that elicited verbal responses, (c) frequencies of infants' behaviors that elicited multimodal responses, and (d) frequencies of infants' behaviors that did not elicit any responses from caregivers. We examined 114 caregiver-infant dyads at 9-11months and children's concurrent and longitudinal vocabulary outcomes at 2-4years. We found that infants' points elicited a large proportion of verbal responses from caregivers which were related to children's later receptive vocabularies. We also found that only shows+gives that elicited caregivers' responses related to infants' concurrent gesture repertoires. In contrast, infants' behaviors that did not elicit responses negatively related to child vocabulary. The results highlight the importance of examining dyadic combinations of infants' behaviors and caregivers' responses during interactions when examining relations to children's vocabulary development.

Bilinguals’ knowledge of ‘home’ and ‘school’ words revisited: evidence from Polish-English bilinguals

ABSTRACT Bilingual children's total vocabulary in each of their languages is often smaller than that of monolinguals. In their seminal study, Bialystok et al. (2010. ‘Receptive vocabulary differences in monolingual and bilingual children.’ Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 13 (4): 525–531) divided children's vocabulary into ‘home’ and ‘school’ words and found no differences in bilinguals’ knowledge of ‘school’ words compared to monolinguals. In Study 1, we asked 292 parents and teachers to categorize words into ‘home’ or ‘school’ contexts, and in Study 2, we analyzed the vocabulary of 220 Polish-English bilingual and monolingual (English and Polish) children aged 4.5–7. The results show that bilinguals knew fewer ‘home’ and ‘school’ words than monolinguals in each language. However, bilinguals were likely to be exposed to these words either at home or at school, whereas monolinguals would hear them in both contexts. For a small subset of English words that bilinguals heard in both contexts, bilinguals showed similar performance to monolinguals. Our results provide evidence for exposure effects in vocabulary acquisition.

Voicing discrimination as a diagnostic marker of developmental language disorder

This study examines how children with developmental language disorder (DLD) discriminate voiced and voiceless consonants and their processing speed. It also explores the contribution of factors like age, nonverbal intelligence, vocabulary, morphosyntactic skills, and sentence repetition in explaining speech perception abilities. Fourteen Cypriot Greek children with DLD and 14 peers with typical development (TD) aged 7; 10–10; 4 were recruited. Children were divided into four groups based on age and condition: young-DLD, young-TD, old-DLD, and old-TD. All children participated in an AX task, which measured their ability to discriminate sounds and their processing speed. They also completed a nonverbal intelligence test and a DVIQ test, which provided measures of various language abilities. The results demonstrated that the young-DLD group exhibited lower performance in discriminating consonants compared to the young-TD group, while such differences were not observed between the old-DLD and old-TD groups. Furthermore, while no significant differences in processing time were found between the DLD and TD groups, both young DLD and TD groups displayed longer processing times compared to their older counterparts. Age was the best-contributing factor to speech perception abilities in children with DLD in contrast to morphosyntax and vocabulary for children with TD. These findings highlight the role of voicing discrimination as a diagnostic marker of DLD as opposed to reaction time. Moreover, they underscore the crucial role of age in detecting DLD. The language developmental trajectories of children with TD appear distinct from those with DLD, as evidenced by variations in contributing factors between the two groups. These disparities can be attributed to the diverse nature of the DLD population, the therapies they receive, the compensatory strategies they employ, and the potential impact of other contributing factors.

The "what" and "when" of language input to children: Linguistic and temporal predictors of vocabulary in 3-year-olds.

The quantity, quality, and complexity of language input are important for children's language development. This study examined how the detailed timing of this input relates to children's vocabulary at 3 years of age in 64 mother-child dyads (male = 28; female = 36; White = 69%, Black = 31%). Acoustical analysis of turn taking in mother-child dialogue found that more consistently timed maternal responses (lower response latency variability) were associated (r = .42, p < .001) with higher vocabulary (Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test, third edition) scores. In mothers with consistently timed responses, the complexity (mean length of utterance) of their child-directed speech significantly predicted (r = .53, p = .002) their children's vocabulary. This suggests that predictably timed contingent maternal responses provide an important learning cue that supports language development beyond the content of language input itself. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Shared characteristics of intervention techniques for oral vocabulary and speech comprehensibility in preschool children with co-occurring features of developmental language disorder and speech sound disorder: a systematic review with narrative synthesis

ObjectivesTo descriptively compare and contrast intervention techniques for preschool children with features of developmental language disorder (outcome: oral vocabulary) and speech sound disorder (outcome: speech comprehensibility) and analyse them in...

How Turkish supplementary schools in the UK boost vocabulary in bilingual children (ages 4–8)

ABSTRACT This study investigates the heritage language development of Turkish-English bilingual children in the UK, focusing on the effects of Turkish supplementary schools and home language environments. A mixed-methods approach was used to compare 4–8-year-old children attending Turkish supplementary schools with those who do not, using vocabulary and narrative tasks and questionnaires. Participants included children from Turkish supplementary schools (attendees, n = 19) and Turkish communities (non-attendees, n = 22) in Doncaster, London, Manchester, Nottingham and York, along with their parents (n = 39). Data were collected in two phases. Initial results indicated that attendees underperformed in Turkish vocabulary production and comprehension, as well as narrative skills, compared to non-attendees, although their English proficiency was comparable. Cross-sectional analysis showed significant lexical growth for both groups from time 1 (t1) to time 2 (t2). Despite these gains, attendees continued to lag in Turkish language knowledge. Attendance at supplementary schools did not significantly affect English vocabulary knowledge. The underperformance of attendees in Turkish language tasks is attributed to greater Turkish exposure and use at home among non-attendees. These findings highlight the critical role of home language practice in bilingual development, suggesting that future studies should consider home language use in their assessments.