Preschoolers' counting: principles before skill.
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Child Development↗
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Markedness analysis of phonemic substitution errors in apraxia of speech.
The phonemic substitution errors of ten apractic speakers were analyzed to investigate the effects of markedness on speech production patterns. Results revealed that: more errors were produced on phonemes high in markedness; more changes in markedness were from marked to unmarked than unmarked to marked; and errors and directional changes in markedness were positively correlated with ease of articulation. The findings were interpreted as a systematic effort by the apractic speakers to reduce the complexity of articulatory gestures required to produce phonemes.
Aged↗
A comparative study of adolescents' perceptions of normal-speaking and dysarthric children.
The purpose of this investigation was to compare adolescents' perceptions of the nonspeech characteristics of dysarthric and normal speakers. Recordings of six three-word phrases produced by 16 speakers, eight cerebral palsied and eight normal-speaking children, were presented to 19 students for judgments of nonspeech characteristics on a semantic differential scale containing 22 bipolar adjective pairs. Results of their ratings indicated that for all 22 adjective pairs the normal speakers were judged more positively than the dysarthric speakers. Moreover, the differences in listeners' ratings between the two speaker groups were statistically significant for all adjective pairs. Implications of these findings and their comparison to the judgments of peer and adult listeners are discussed.
Adolescent↗
Sexual abuse allegations in child custody disputes.
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Child↗
Age of acquisition effects in picture naming: evidence for a lexical-semantic competition hypothesis.
In many tasks the effects of frequency and age of acquisition (AoA) on reaction latencies are similar in size. However, in picture naming the AoA-effect is often significantly larger than expected on the basis of the frequency-effect. Previous explanations of this frequency-independent AoA-effect have attributed it to the organisation of the semantic system or to the way phonological word forms are stored in the mental lexicon. Using a semantic blocking paradigm, we show that semantic context effects on naming latencies are more pronounced for late-acquired than for early-acquired words. This interaction between AoA and naming context is likely to arise during lexical-semantic encoding, which we put forward as the locus for the frequency-independent AoA-effect.
Age Factors↗
Knowing what a novel word is not: Two-year-olds 'listen through' ambiguous adjectives in fluent speech.
Three studies investigated how 24-month-olds and adults resolve temporary ambiguity in fluent speech when encountering prenominal adjectives potentially interpretable as nouns. Children were tested in a looking-while-listening procedure to monitor the time course of speech processing. In Experiment 1, the familiar and unfamiliar adjectives preceding familiar target nouns were accented or deaccented. Target word recognition was disrupted only when lexically ambiguous adjectives were accented like nouns. Experiment 2 measured the extent of interference experienced by children when interpreting prenominal words as nouns. In Experiment 3, adults used prosodic cues to identify the form class of adjective/noun homophones in string-identical sentences before the ambiguous words were fully spoken. Results show that children and adults use prosody in conjunction with lexical and distributional cues to 'listen through' prenominal adjectives, avoiding costly misinterpretation.
Child Language↗
Lexical competition in young children's word learning.
In two experiments, 1.5-year-olds were taught novel words whose sound patterns were phonologically similar to familiar words (novel neighbors) or were not (novel nonneighbors). Learning was tested using a picture-fixation task. In both experiments, children learned the novel nonneighbors but not the novel neighbors. In addition, exposure to the novel neighbors impaired recognition performance on familiar neighbors. Finally, children did not spontaneously use phonological differences to infer that a novel word referred to a novel object. Thus, lexical competition--inhibitory interaction among words in speech comprehension--can prevent children from using their full phonological sensitivity in judging words as novel. These results suggest that word learning in young children, as in adults, relies not only on the discrimination and identification of phonetic categories, but also on evaluating the likelihood that an utterance conveys a new word.
Child Development↗
Understanding the emotional past: relations between parent and child contributions in emotionally negative and nonnegative events.
The past event conversations of 33 mothers with their 3-year-old children (18 girls and 15 boys) were selected from a larger sample based on their discussion of negative events. Negative events included both those that were negative in topic and those that contained negative incidents but were otherwise positively themed. Within-subjects comparisons were made between the negative events and a neutral or positive event. There were few differences in how mothers and their children talked about negative and nonnegative events. Children did include more interpretations (internal state and causal references) in their negative event conversations. For both event types, mothers who talked more about the past events had children who reported more. When maternal talkativeness was controlled, involving children in the negative event conversations through deflecting the conversational turn predicted children's total contributions and number of interpretations. Repeating information and requests for information while constraining the topic was negatively related to the number of details children reported for nonnegative past events. Conversations about minor negative experiences demonstrate that mothers can influence children's involvement in discussions and understanding of the past.
Child Language↗
Relations between vocabulary development and verbal short-term memory: The relative importance of short-term memory for serial order and item information.
Although many studies have shown an association between verbal short-term memory (STM) and vocabulary development, the precise nature of this association is not yet clear. The current study reexamined this relation in 4- to 6-year-olds by designing verbal STM tasks that maximized memory for either item or serial order information. Although empirical data suggest that distinct STM processes determine item and serial order recall, these were generally confounded in previous developmental studies. We observed that item and order memory tasks were independently related to vocabulary development. Furthermore, vocabulary development was more strongly associated with STM for order information in 4- and 6-year-olds and with STM for item information in 5-year-olds. These data highlight the specificity of verbal STM for serial order and item information and suggest a causal association between order STM processes and vocabulary development, at least in 4- and 6-year-olds.
Child↗
The role of discourse context in developing word form representations: a paradoxical relation between reading and learning.
To acquire representations of printed words, children must attend to the written form of a word and link this form with the word's pronunciation. When words are read in context, they may be read with less attention to these features, and this can lead to poorer word form retention. Two experiments with young children (ages 5-8 years) confirmed this hypothesis. In our experiments, children attempted to read words they could not previously read, during a self-teaching period, either in context or in isolation. Later they were tested on how well they learned the words as a function of self-teaching condition (isolation or context). Consistent with previous research, children read more words accurately in context than in isolation during self-teaching; however, children had better retention for words learned in isolation. Furthermore, this benefit from learning in isolation was larger for less skilled readers. This effect of poorer word retention when words are learned in context is paradoxical because context has been shown to facilitate word identification. We discuss factors that may influence this effect of context, especially the role of children's skill level and the demands of learning new word representations at the beginning of reading instruction.
Child↗
Developments in early recall memory: normative trends and individual differences.
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Brain↗
Hot dogs and zavy cats: preschoolers' and adults' expectations about familiar and novel adjectives.
In recent years, a growing body of research has begun to examine the processes that underlie young children's acquisition of adjectival meanings. In the present studies, we examined whether preschoolers' willingness to extend adjectives was influenced by the type of property labeled by familiar adjectives (Experiment 1) and by semantic information conveyed in the sentence used to introduce novel adjectives (Experiment 2). In Experiment 1, we examined preschoolers' and adults' expectations about the generalizability of familiar adjectives of three different types: emotional state terms, physiological state terms, and stable trait terms. On each trial, we labeled a target animal with one of the three different types of adjectives and asked whether these terms could apply to a subordinate-level match, a basic-level match, a superordinate-level match, or an inanimate object. Results indicated that 4-year-olds and adults extended the trait terms, but not the emotional or physiological terms, to members of the same basic-level category. In Experiment 2, we presented 4-year-olds and adults with novel adjectives in one of two verb frames: stable ("This X is very daxy") or transient ("This X feels very daxy"). Participants were more likely to extend the novel adjective to subordinate matches if they were in the Stable frame group than if they were in the Transient frame group. These findings are discussed in terms of implications for young children's expectations about familiar and novel adjectives.
Adolescent↗
Using SNAP Dragons to monitor narrative abilities in young deaf children following cochlear implantation.
OBJECTIVE: To assess the narrative abilities of young deaf children before cochlear implantation and 1 and 2 years following implantation, and to explore possible changes in the implanted children's preferred mode of communication in the narrative abilities task. STUDY DESIGN: Prospective longitudinal study assessing the narrative abilities of young deaf children before and after cochlear implantation. SETTING: Pediatric tertiary referral center for cochlear implantation. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The narrative abilities of 35 young profoundly deaf children were assessed before implantation and 1 and 2 years following implantation using the Stories/Narratives Assessment Procedure. Children with age at implantation less than 6 years were included in the study (mean age at implantation was 3.5 years; range 1.4-5.9 years). All children were filled with the Nucleus multichannel cochlear implant system. With respect to their communication modes, they came from a wide range of backgrounds and all children were encouraged to use their preferred mode of communication during the narrative task. RESULTS: The data showed that there was a statistically significant increase in narrative abilities across the three data points (P<0.001). Before receiving the implant, children were mostly in the pre-structural, receptive stages and could at most label or comment on the pictures (median narrative stage 2). By the 2-year interval, children were mostly using one or two categories or one complete episode with spontaneous retelling (median narrative stage 4). Although children were not pressured to use any particular communication mode, a shift to speech was found following implantation and this was statistically significant (P<0.001). CONCLUSION: Young implanted deaf children showed a significant progress in their narrative abilities through time and a significant shift in the predominant mode of communication towards more speech orientated communication modes following cochlear implantation.
Books↗
Reading and spelling abilities in children with severe speech impairments and cerebral palsy at 6, 9, and 12 years of age in relation to cognitive development: a longitudinal study.
Development of literacy skills was studied in six children (one male, five females) with severe speech impairments and cerebral palsy (CP). These skills were related to intellectual development, phonological abilities, and short-term memory. Three of the children were diagnosed with dystonia, and three with diplegia. They had no, or severely restricted, independent mobility (Gross Motor Function Classification System Level IV for four children and Level V for two), and severe fine motor problems, including difficulty with pointing. As they had no intelligible speech, the Bliss system was the primary communication mode. Assessments were made at approximately 6, 9, and 12 years of age. The results revealed that the children had difficulties acquiring literacy skills, although intellectual level and phonological ability predicted otherwise. Positive development during the first 3 years was followed by an arrest. A conspicuous decrease in IQ points was also found. Thus, phonological ability does not seem to have the same predictive power for literacy development in children with severe speech impairments and CP as in typically developing children. Further studies are needed to clarify the role of phonological abilities, working memory, and strategies used in literacy acquisition in these children. Such studies might also clarify the importance of articulatory abilities in early literacy acquisition.
Adolescent↗
Précis of How children learn the meanings of words.
Normal children learn tens of thousands of words, and do so quickly and efficiently, often in highly impoverished environments. In How Children Learn the Meanings of Words, I argue that word learning is the product of certain cognitive and linguistic abilities that include the ability to acquire concepts, an appreciation of syntactic cues to meaning, and a rich understanding of the mental states of other people. These capacities are powerful, early emerging, and to some extent uniquely human, but they are not special to word learning. This proposal is an alternative to the view that word learning is the result of simple associative learning mechanisms, and it rejects as well the notion that children possess constraints, either innate or learned, that are specifically earmarked for word learning. This theory is extended to account for how children learn names for objects, substances, and abstract entities, pronouns and proper names, verbs, determiners, prepositions, and number words. Several related topics are also discussed, including naïve essentialism, children's understanding of representational art, the nature of numerical and spatial reasoning, and the role of words in the shaping of mental life.
Child Language↗
Consistency in the pattern of change in mothers' speech: some discriminant analyses.
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Adult↗
Predictive validity of the New Zealand MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences.
This study assessed the long-term predictive validity of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories: Words and Sentences (CDI:WS; Fenson, Dale, Reznick, Thal, Bates, Hartung, Pethick & Reilly, 1993) for children's expressive and receptive vocabulary development. Sixty-one New Zealand children (31 females) were assessed with a New Zealand version of the CDI: WS at 1;7 and 2;1 and with the Expressive Vocabulary Test (Williams, 1997) and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-III (Dunn & Dunn, 1997) at 2;8 and 3;4. Excellent reliability and good predictive validity was obtained for the NZ CDI:WS even over a 21-month delay. Predictive validity of the NZ CDI:WS for the PPVT-III was higher for children of mothers with less education. We discuss the implications of these results for use of the CDI:WS with children from a broad range of cultural and educational backgrounds.
Child Language↗
Phonological priming in children's picture naming.
Two experiments examined phonological priming in children and adults, using a cross-modal picture-word interference task. Pictures of familiar objects were presented on a computer screen, while interfering words (IWs) were presented over headphones. In terms of their relation to target pictures, IWs were either phonologically related, unrelated, neutral (the word go), or identical. Ninety children (30 aged 4;11 to 5;11, 30 aged 6;11 to 7;11, and 30 aged 9;5 to 11;9) and 30 adults were instructed to name the pictures as quickly as possible while ignoring the IWs. In Experiment 1, related IWs shared onset consonants with the names of the pictures. Across ages, participants named pictures faster with related IWs than with unrelated IWs. In Experiment 2, related IWs rhymed with the targets. Here, only the youngest children (five to seven-year-olds) named pictures faster with related IWs than with unrelated IWs. The results indicate that priming effects reach a peak during a time when articulatory information is being consolidated in the output phonological buffer. The disappearance of the rhyme priming effect with age may reflect the gradual emergence of the onset as an organizing structure in speech production. This increased prominence of the onset can be viewed as one component of a just-in-time, incrementalist approach to speech production that allows adults to speak more fluently than children.
Child↗