Toddlers with smaller vocabulary than expected for their age are considered late talkers (LT). This study explored the effects of characteristics of words on vocabulary acquisition of 12- to 24-month-old LT children compared with an age matched (AM) and a vocabulary matched (VM) group of typically developing peers. Using the…

Intended for teachers, authors, and publishers of children's educational materials, this book presents a list of words used by elementary school children in their creative or uncontrolled writing. The list is based on the writing samples of approximately 3,000 children, grades one through six, that were collected during a one-year period.…

Describes the development of a 99-word multiple meaning word list and offers activities designed to develop children's knowledge of multiple meaning words. (FL)

To determine the number of distinct words in printed school English, a study analyzed a 7,260 word sample from the "Word Frequency Book" prepared by J. B. Carroll, P. Davies, and B. Richman. Projecting from the sample to the total vocabulary of school English, the best estimate was that it contained about 88,500 distinct words. Furthermore, for…

To offer a historical perspective on vocabulary studies, this paper presents summaries, reviews, and critiques of vocabulary studies in chronological order of publication. The only variance from this format are published rebuttals and/or critiques, which are presented immediately following the original studies. The paper is divided into two parts.…

A study identified the homophones most commonly used in children's writing and showed how the relative use of specific homophones changes as writing skill develops. Homophones appearing in Rinsland's "A Basic Vocabulary of Elementary School Children," a vocabulary list compiled from a national sample of children's writing in grades 2…

Relatively little research has been done on the quantitative characteristics of children's word usage. This spoken count was undertaken to investigate those aspects of word usage and frequency which could cast light on lexical processes in grammar and verbal development in children. Three groups of 30 children each (boys and girls) from…

Reports on a study of the color terms used in Setswana. The study compared terms used by children with those of adults and those used by people from rural areas with those used by people from urban areas. Results show a move away from traditional Setswana color terms toward the use of borrowed English terms, particularly among the young and…