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American Journal of Speech-language... Jul 2023This study presents a preliminary examination of rare vocabulary use by preschool children using a recently developed tool called the Wordlist for Expressive Rare...
PURPOSE
This study presents a preliminary examination of rare vocabulary use by preschool children using a recently developed tool called the Wordlist for Expressive Rare Vocabulary Evaluation (WERVE).
METHOD
The WERVE was used to identify rare vocabulary words language samples of 74 preschool children ( = 56 months). We examined the relations among rare vocabulary use, performance on norm-referenced measures of single-word vocabulary, and language sample measures of language complexity and lexical diversity.
RESULTS
Rare vocabulary use was significantly, positively correlated with standard scores on norm-referenced vocabulary measures and with language complexity and lexical diversity in language samples. Children with higher vocabulary scores used significantly more rare vocabulary than children with lower vocabulary scores.
CONCLUSIONS
The WERVE shows some promise for providing information about the rare vocabulary use of preschool children. Findings from this preliminary study indicate that further research on rare vocabulary use is warranted.
SUPPLEMENTAL MATERIAL
https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.23518845.
Topics: Humans; Child, Preschool; Child; Vocabulary; Language; Child Language; Language Tests
PubMed: 37348515
DOI: 10.1044/2023_AJSLP-22-00349 -
Journal of Speech, Language, and... Dec 2021This study investigated within-language and between-language associations between phonological memory, vocabulary, and grammar in French-English ( = 43) and...
PURPOSE
This study investigated within-language and between-language associations between phonological memory, vocabulary, and grammar in French-English ( = 43) and Spanish-English ( = 25) bilingual children at 30, 36, and 48 months. It was predicted that phonological memory would display both within-language and between-language relations to language development and that these relations would be stronger at the youngest age.
METHOD
Bilingual children participated in free-play sessions in both of their languages at each age, from which vocabulary and grammatical information (number of different words and mean length of utterance) was extracted. Vocabulary information was also obtained from parent inventories completed when the children were 30 months and a standardized receptive vocabulary test administered at 36 and 48 months. The children were also administered nonword repetition tests in both of their languages at each age.
RESULTS
Mixed logistic regression indicated that phonological memory was associated with vocabulary and grammar within the same language and phonological memory in the other language. In two of the four statistical models, phonological memory exhibited positive between-language relations, and in one model, it exhibited negative between-language relations to language development. Results also indicated that within-language and between-languages effects remained constant, or between-language associations decreased during the age range studied.
CONCLUSION
Overall, the findings provide some support for cross-language associations between phonological memory and lexical and grammatical skills.
Topics: Child; Child Language; Humans; Language Development; Language Tests; Linguistics; Multilingualism; Vocabulary
PubMed: 34731575
DOI: 10.1044/2021_JSLHR-21-00176 -
International Journal of Environmental... Jan 2022Diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are typically accompanied by atypical language development, which can be noticeable even before diagnosis. The siblings of... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
The Vocabulary of Infants with an Elevated Likelihood and Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Infant Language Studies Using the CDI and MSEL.
Diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are typically accompanied by atypical language development, which can be noticeable even before diagnosis. The siblings of children diagnosed with ASD are at elevated likelihood for ASD diagnosis and have been shown to have higher prevalence rates than the general population. In this paper, we systematically reviewed studies looking at the vocabulary size and development of infants with autism. One inclusion criterion was that infants were grouped either pre-diagnostically as elevated or typical likelihood or post-diagnostically as ASD or without ASD. This review focused on studies that tested infants up to 24 months of age and that assessed vocabulary either via the parent-completed MacArthur-Bates Communicative Developmental Inventory (CDI) or the clinician-administered Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL). Our systematic search yielded 76 studies. A meta-analysis was performed on these studies that compared the vocabulary scores of EL and TL infants pre-diagnostically and the scores of ASD and non-ASD infants post-diagnostically. Both pre- and post-diagnostically, it was found that the EL and ASD infants had smaller vocabularies than their TL and non-ASD peers, respectively. The effect sizes across studies were heterogenous, prompting additional moderator analyses of age and sub-group analyses of the language measure used (CDI or MSEL) as potential moderators of the effect size. Age was found to be a moderator both in the pre- and post-diagnostical groups, however, language measure was not a moderator in either diagnostic group. Interpretations and future research directions are discussed based on these findings.
Topics: Autism Spectrum Disorder; Child; Humans; Infant; Language; Language Development; Verbascum; Vocabulary
PubMed: 35162492
DOI: 10.3390/ijerph19031469 -
Developmental Science Nov 2020Mental imagery is a foundational human faculty that depends on active image construction and sensorimotor experiences. However, children now spend a significant...
Mental imagery is a foundational human faculty that depends on active image construction and sensorimotor experiences. However, children now spend a significant proportion of their day engaged with screen-media, which (a) provide them with ready-made mental images, and (b) constitute a sensory narrowing whereby input is typically focused on the visual and auditory modalities. Accordingly, we test the idea that screen-time influences the development of children's mental imagery with a focus on mental image generation and inspection from the visual and haptic domains. In a longitudinal cross-lagged panel design, children (n = 266) aged between 3 and 9 years were tested at two points in time, 10 months apart. Measures of screen-time and mental imagery were employed, alongside a host of control variables including working memory, vocabulary, demographics, device ownership, and age of exposure to screen-media. Findings indicate a statistically significant path from screen-time at time 1 to mental imagery at time 2, above and beyond the influence of the control variables. These unique findings are discussed in terms of the influence of screen-time on mental imagery.
Topics: Child; Humans; Imagination; Infant; Memory, Short-Term; Vocabulary
PubMed: 32353916
DOI: 10.1111/desc.12978 -
Cognitive Processing May 2023This study investigates the contribution of receptive collocational competence and receptive vocabulary knowledge to L2 general language proficiency, and how well...
This study investigates the contribution of receptive collocational competence and receptive vocabulary knowledge to L2 general language proficiency, and how well collocational knowledge develops in relation to knowledge of single-word items. To achieve this aim, measures tapping receptive collocation knowledge, receptive vocabulary knowledge and general language proficiency were administered to 86 Arabic-speaking learners of English at the university level. Results showed positive significant correlations of collocational competence (r = .78) and vocabulary knowledge (r = .70) with general language proficiency. Regression analysis revealed that collocational knowledge predicted the largest variance in general language proficiency, over and above, the prediction value of vocabulary knowledge. The results also showed that collocational knowledge develops as vocabulary knowledge increases, and that learners appear to first acquire collocations of items from more frequent word bands. Furthermore, the results indicated that knowledge of collocations and individual words within the third and fifth frequency levels predicted the largest variance in L2 general language proficiency. The findings of the study have important implications for the teaching and learning of L2 collocations and development of a learner's vocabulary knowledge, as these two variables appear to be determinant factors of L2 general language proficiency.
Topics: Humans; Vocabulary; Multilingualism; Language; Learning
PubMed: 36547821
DOI: 10.1007/s10339-022-01120-2 -
Journal of Communication Disorders 2022There are limited data on the interrelationships among pragmatic skills and expressive vocabulary and their contribution to later social communication. Understanding... (Randomized Controlled Trial)
Randomized Controlled Trial
INTRODUCTION
There are limited data on the interrelationships among pragmatic skills and expressive vocabulary and their contribution to later social communication. Understanding these relationships could inform developmental processes and early intervention strategies. This study explored the relationship among pragmatics skills (i.e., communicative intents and responding to parents' preceding utterances) and concurrent expressive vocabulary as well as the predictive nature of these skills on later social communication in young autistic children with language and cognitive delays.
METHOD
Data from 56 autistic children (age 18-57 months) who participated in a larger randomized control trial of Pathways Early Autism Intervention were used in this secondary analysis. Video recordings of pre-intervention (Time 1) parent-child interactions were analyzed for number of different words (NDW; expressive vocabulary), number of different (ND) communicative intents, and response to parents' preceding utterances. Residual scores from an assessment of social communication were used to measure Time 2 social communication. First-order correlations and hierarchical regression were used for analyses.
RESULTS
Adjusting for age and receptive language, both ND communicative intents and response to parents' preceding utterances were associated with pre-intervention NDW. Further, adjusting for receptive language age and intervention group, NDW and response to parents' preceding utterances - but not ND communicative intents-was related to Time 2 social communication. NDW, however, was no longer related to Time 2 social communication skills after accounting for response to parents' preceding utterances.
CONCLUSIONS
This study provides evidence that autistic children with language and cognitive delays use their expressive vocabularies to respond, hence allocating attention to parent speech, a rudimentary form of social orienting. Our results support approaches to intervention that leverage responding as a rudimentary form of social orienting while encouraging more mature forms of social attention (i.e., social orienting to faces and joint attention) within developmentally appropriate activities, such as routines.
Topics: Autistic Disorder; Child, Preschool; Cognition; Communication; Humans; Infant; Language; Vocabulary
PubMed: 35797775
DOI: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2022.106243 -
Neuropsychology Review Dec 2023Although attention and early associative learning in preverbal children is predominantly driven by rapid eye-movements in response to moving visual stimuli and... (Meta-Analysis)
Meta-Analysis Review
Although attention and early associative learning in preverbal children is predominantly driven by rapid eye-movements in response to moving visual stimuli and sounds/words (e.g., associating the word "bottle" with the object), the literature examining the role of visual attention and memory in ongoing vocabulary development across childhood is limited. Thus, this systematic review and meta-analysis examined the association between visual memory and vocabulary development, including moderators such as age and task selection, in neurotypical children aged 2-to-12 years, from the brain-based perspective of cognitive neuroscience. Visual memory tasks were classified according to the visual characteristics of the stimuli and the neural networks known to preferentially process such information, including consideration of the distinction between the ventral visual stream (processing more static visuo-perceptual details, such as form or colour) and the more dynamic dorsal visual stream (processing spatial temporal action-driven information). Final classifications included spatio-temporal span tasks, visuo-perceptual or spatial concurrent array tasks, and executive judgment tasks. Visuo-perceptual concurrent array tasks, reliant on ventral stream processing, were moderately associated with vocabulary, while tasks measuring spatio-temporal spans, associated with dorsal stream processing, and executive judgment tasks (central executive), showed only weak correlations with vocabulary. These findings have important implications for health professionals and researchers interested in language, as they advocate for the development of more targeted language learning interventions that include specific and relevant aspects of visual processing and memory, such as ventral stream visuo-perceptual details (i.e., shape or colour).
Topics: Child; Humans; Vocabulary; Memory; Visual Perception; Brain; Language
PubMed: 36136174
DOI: 10.1007/s11065-022-09561-4 -
Developmental Science Mar 2022A long-standing question in developmental science is how the neurodevelopment of the brain influences cognitive functions. Here, we examined the developmental change of...
A long-standing question in developmental science is how the neurodevelopment of the brain influences cognitive functions. Here, we examined the developmental change of resting EEG power and its links to vocabulary acquisition in school-age children. We further explored what mechanisms may mediate the relation between brain rhythm maturation and vocabulary knowledge. Eyes-opened resting-state EEG data were recorded from 53 typically-developing Chinese children every 2 years between the ages of 7 and 11. Our results showed first that delta, theta, and gamma power decreased over time, whereas alpha and beta power increased over time. Second, after controlling for general cognitive abilities, age, home literacy environment, and phonological skills, theta decreases explained 6.9% and 14.4% of unique variance in expressive vocabulary at ages 9 and 11, respectively. We also found that beta increase from age 7 to 9 significantly predicted receptive vocabulary at age 11. Finally, theta decrease predicted expressive vocabulary through the effects of phoneme deletion at age 9 and tone discrimination at age 11. These results substantiate the important role of brain oscillations at rest, especially theta rhythm, in language development. The developmental change of brain rhythms could serve as sensitive biomarkers for vocabulary development in school-age children, which would be of great value in identifying children at risk of language impairment.
Topics: Brain; Child; Humans; Language; Language Development; Literacy; Vocabulary
PubMed: 34258830
DOI: 10.1111/desc.13157 -
Child Neuropsychology : a Journal on... Apr 2023This study aimed to find the association of receptive vocabulary in the development of speech and language among school-going children (4-13 years) with language...
This study aimed to find the association of receptive vocabulary in the development of speech and language among school-going children (4-13 years) with language disorders. On the basis of non-verbal receptive vocabulary and percentage correct consonants (PCC) scores, children from public schools in Punjab, Pakistan with speech and language issues were separated into three groups; Speech sound disordered (SSD, N = 15), Language Impaired (LI) comorbid with SSD (N = 42) and typically developed (TD, N = 15). Urdu version of Peabody picture vocabulary test, fourth edition (U-PPVT-4), Digit memory test (DMT), and Test for assessment of articulation and phonology in Urdu (TAAPU) were used to assess non-verbal receptive vocabulary, Short-term memory (STM), Working memory (WM), and SSD. Correlation and regression analyses were performed to find the association of receptive vocabulary with other measures used. Receptive vocabulary, STM, WM, omission, substitution, and PCC scores were significantly different (< 0.01) when compared among LI+SSD, SSD, and TD groups. Regression analysis showed that receptive vocabulary was significantly associated with STM and WM in the LI+SSD group. A positive correlation was found between the U-PPVT-4 standard score with STM and WM for LI+SSD and SSD groups. Our findings in Urdu-speaking children suggested that STM and WM were less developed in children with speech and language impairments. Moreover, children with speech and language deficits not only had weaker receptive vocabulary but also attention should be given to improving STM and WM that contribute to LI.
Topics: Humans; Child; Vocabulary; Speech; Pakistan; Memory, Short-Term; Language Development Disorders
PubMed: 35723553
DOI: 10.1080/09297049.2022.2087866 -
Developmental Psychology Apr 2022Toddlerhood is marked by advances in several lexico-semantic skills, including improvements in the size and structure of the lexicon and increased efficiency in lexical...
Toddlerhood is marked by advances in several lexico-semantic skills, including improvements in the size and structure of the lexicon and increased efficiency in lexical processing. This project seeks to delineate how early changes in vocabulary size and vocabulary structure support lexical processing (Experiment 1), and how these three skills together (vocabulary size, structure, and lexical processing) relate to later language outcomes at age 3 (Experiment 2). Experiment 1 explored how the size and semantic structure of toddlers' vocabulary from 18 to 24 months (N = 61) predicted performance on two lexical processing tasks (semantically related and semantically unrelated trials). Denser semantic connectivity (i.e., global level connectivity between near and far neighbors) positively associated with semantic interference during semantically related lexical processing, whereas denser category structure (i.e., lower-level connectivity between near neighbors) facilitated lexical processing in semantically unrelated trials. In Experiment 2, a subset of the same children (N = 49) returned at age 36 months and completed a comprehensive assessment of their language skills using the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamental, Preschool 2 (CELF-P2). Here, earlier measures of lexico-semantic connectivity and lexical processing best predicted age 3 language skill. The findings support accounts that early vocabulary structure and lexical processing skills promote continued growth in language. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).
Topics: Child, Preschool; Humans; Language; Language Development; Language Tests; Semantics; Vocabulary
PubMed: 35343711
DOI: 10.1037/dev0001291