Background: The implicit learning deficit hypothesis claims that impaired implicit learning underlies deficits in social-communicative abilities associated with developmental language disorder (DLD). However, previous research testing this hypothesis revealed inconsistent results and largely used process-impure sequential learning tasks. Aims:…

From the second year of life, children with typical development (TD) demonstrate the ability to form word-word relations. However, this ability has received little attention in children with Down syndrome (DS). We investigated their ability to establish associative relationships between words that tend to occur in the same context. Two groups of…

Audio-visual associative learning -- at least when linguistic stimuli are employed -- is known to rely on core linguistic skills such as phonological awareness. Here we ask whether this would also be the case in a task that does not manipulate linguistic information. Another question of interest is whether executive skills, often found to support…

The ability to map similar sounding words to different meanings alone is far from enough for successful speech processing. To overcome variability in the speech signal, young learners must also recognize words across surface variations. Previous studies have shown that infants at 14 months are able to use variations in word-internal cues (i.e.,…

When toddlers hear a novel word, they quickly and independently link it with a novel object rather than known-name objects. However, they are less proficient in retaining multiple novel words. Sleep and even short naps can enhance declarative memory in adults and children and this study investigates the effect of napping on children's memory for…

The genetic factor structure of a range of learning measures was explored in twin children, recruited in preschool and followed to Grade 2 ("N"?=?2,084). Measures of orthographic learning and word reading were included in the analyses to determine how these patterned with the learning processes. An exploratory factor analysis of the…

To help children develop a concept of "words," this document introduces parallels from languages other than English so that children, especially those learning English as a second language, can become aware of similarities across languages and recognize links between their first language and English. Answers to questions often asked by…