Purpose: This study examined learning via perception, learning via production, and semantic depth as contributors to word learning in preschool-aged children. There is broad evidence that semantic depth is an important contributor to word learning, especially when semantic cues are repeated and spaced out over time. Perceptual learning and…

What is vision's role in driving early word production? To answer this, we assessed parent-report vocabulary questionnaires administered to congenitally blind children (N = 40, Mean age = 24 months [R: 7-57 months]) and compared the size and contents of their productive vocabulary to those of a large normative sample of sighted children (N =…

In the world, the manners and paths of motion events take place together, but in language, these features are expressed separately. How do infants learn to process motion events in linguistically appropriate ways? Forty-six English-learning 7- to 9-month-olds were habituated to a motion event in which a character performed both a manner and a…

Reading with comprehension is a challenge for students with high-functioning autism spectrum disorder. Unfortunately, research has little to offer to teachers trying to help these students. The present study pilots a new intervention targeting vocabulary, main idea identification, anaphoric relations, and text structure. Students (N = 13, M…

Students' learning styles and vocabulary learning strategies are among the main factors that help determine how students learn second language vocabulary. This work examined the extent to which choice of vocabulary learning strategies is affected by students' perceptual learning style. In this research, the participants were 54 EFL learners at…

In this paper we consider the perceptual and conceptual contributions that shape early word learning, using research on the "shape bias" as a case in point. In our view, conceptual, linguistic, social-pragmatic, and perceptual sources of information influence one another powerfully and continuously in the service of word learning throughout…

Investigated whether and when children establish various semantic relations between old and new words. Fifty 2-year olds were taught labels for objects previously referred to by an overextended term. Findings are discussed in light of theories of lexical development, particularly with regard to conceptualizations of constraints on the acquisition…

Hypothesis was confirmed that more familiar and more ambiguous concepts would be less readily named in their less detailed representations. (Author/MB)

Reports a study designed to determine whether students with learning problems could increase their own reading efficiency by learning through resources that complemented their perceptual strengths. Subjects were 16 children in a second grade learning disabilities class. Their reading vocabularies were improved during the perceptual program.…

Ostensive definitions of words are ambiguities as to their referent. In a study of infant-mother dyads engaged in looking at picture books, 95 percent of ostensive definitions referred to the whole object depicted rather than parts, attributes, or actions. When parts were named, ambiguity was avoided by naming the part and the whole. (PJM)

Designed to help children with auditory perceptual problems from fourth through sixth grade, the manual contains essays and exercises to develop listening skills, auditory memory, vocabulary, and imagination. The first section contains instructions to the teacher and the essays which are at three levels of difficulty and intended to be read to the…

The hypothesis explains the early lexical development of children and the predictions of this hypothesis are shown to be consistent with available data on overextension. (Author/NCR)

Designed to help children with auditory perceptual problems from preschool through grade 4, the manual contains stories and exercises to develop listening skills, auditory memory, vocabulary, and imagination. The first section contains instructions to the teacher as well as stories which are at three levels of difficulty and intended to be read to…

The study found that providing feedback and goals in an accelerating standards condition had a positive effect on the learning of eight retarded children (mean age 9 years) on a five-choice discrimination task requiring vocabulary and perceptual competence. (Author/DB)