This study examined the influence of linguistic input on the development of productive and receptive skills across three fundamental language domains: lexico-semantics, syntax, and phonology. Seventy-one (35 female) Basque-Spanish bilingual children were assessed at three time points (Fall 2018, Summer 2019, Winter 2021), between 4 and 6 years of…

"Wh"-words have been analysed as existential quantifiers (Chierchia in Logic in grammar: polarity, free choice, and intervention. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2013; Fox, in Sauerland U, Stateva P (eds) Presupposition and implicature in compositional semantics (Palgrave studies in pragmatics, language and cognition). Palgrave…

In children's early years, they frequently pretend, create and take on roles while engaging in the dramatic play area where symbols, language and culture are spontaneously developed and applied. Although abundant research has been conducted on sociodramatic play incorporating digital tools and using props, previous research has given less…

This paper discusses a study that considered how the quality of three different learning environments, indoor classrooms, outdoor classrooms and forest schools, for children aged 3-5 years, is associated with the quality of their utterances. Adopting a theoretical framework of interactionism it was found that, within the study settings (n = 4),…

For both adults and children, learning from one's mistakes (error-based learning) has been shown to be advantageous over avoiding errors altogether (errorless learning) in pedagogical settings. However, it remains unclear whether this advantage carries over to nonpedagogical settings in children, who mostly learn language in such settings. Using…

How does one assess developmental change when the measures themselves change with development? Most developmental studies of word learning use either looking (infants) or pointing (preschoolers and older). With little empirical evidence of the relationship between the two measures, developmental change is difficult to assess. This paper analyzes…

Purpose: Disfluencies can be classified as stuttering-like disfluencies (SLDs) or typical disfluencies (TDs). Dividing TDs further, stalls (fillers and repetitions) are thought to be prospective, occurring due to planning glitches, and revisions (word and phrase revisions, word fragments) are thought to be retrospective, occurring when a speaker…

This article analyzes the acquisition of the passive voice in Northern East (NE) Cree and pays particular attention to the interaction of frequency effects and language-specific cues in the way children form and employ expectations, the process of anticipating oncoming structure in the ambient language. The passive has long been of interest in…

Previous research demonstrates that children delineate more nuanced color boundaries with increased exposure to their native language. As socioeconomic status (SES) is known to correlate with differences in the amount of language input children receive, this study attempts to extend previous research by asking how both age (age 3 vs 5) and SES…

We examined whether and how the degree of meaning overlap between morphologically related words influences sentence plausibility judgment in children. In two separate studies with kindergarten and second-graders, English-speaking and French-speaking children judged the plausibility of sentences that included two paired target words. Some of these…

This article investigates the acquisition of empathy verbs in child Japanese, focusing on verbs of giving/receiving: "age-ru" 'give,' "kure-ru" 'give,' and "mora(w)-u" 'receive.' These verbs are distinguished by which argument the speaker empathizes with when describing an event. For "age-ru" 'give,' the…

Background: Early childhood is a critical period of language development. Yet less is known about how language growth relates to the development of phoneme awareness and cognitive flexibility during this period. Aims: To examine the longitudinal associations between growth in phonological awareness and cognitive flexibility from 4 to 5 years in…

Research shows that experiences with nature have positive direct and indirect effects on multiple domains of child development, including language skills. However, few studies have examined the relationship between young children's language and outdoor nature settings. In this quantitative study, we compared children's language use in an indoor…

Modals (e.g., "can," "must") vary along two dimensions of meaning: "force" (i.e., possibility or necessity), and "flavor" (i.e., possibilities relative to knowledge [epistemic], goals [teleological], or rules [deontic] …). Comprehension studies show that children struggle with both force and flavor…

Both expressive and receptive language difficulties in autism emerge early and significantly have an impact on social functioning and quality of life. Despite their wide heterogeneity, autistic language abilities can be stratified into three distinct profiles. Language unimpaired exhibit near-typical verbal performance, language impaired show…