Learning new words and, subsequently, a lexicon, is a time-extended process requiring encoding of word-referent pairs, retention of that information, and generalization to other exemplars of the category. Some children, however, fail in one or more of these processes resulting in language delays. The present study examines the abilities of…

The effects of the age of acquisition (AoA) of words were examined in the clinical treatment of 10 preschool children with phonological delays. Using a single-subject multiple-baseline experimental design, children were enrolled in one of four conditions that varied the AoA of the treated words (early vs. late acquired) relative to their…

A paradox at the heart of language acquisition research is that, to achieve adult-like competence, children must acquire the ability to generalize verbs into non-attested structures, while avoiding utterances that are deemed ungrammatical by native speakers. For example, children must learn that, to denote the reversal of an action,…