Four samples of language-impaired and control children (N=233, ages from 4 to 14) participated in seven experiments to determine the specific conditions under which retrieval deficits play a role in language-impaired children's word finding problems. Experiments 1-5 dealt with recall, retrieval, and similarity judgments of words presented…

This study examined qualitative developments in 96 school-aged children's expressible knowledge of 434 words (selected to represent dictionary contents). Developmental changes were found in proportions of high quality definitions, semantic and syntactic form, effects of parts of speech, morphological composition, and lexical organization. Results…

Vocabulary development includes learning to recognize, comprehend, and produce alternative ways of communicating a word, an image, or a concept. Instruction in such language alternatives can increase the effectiveness of students' communication skills, making their vocabulary usage more appropriate, precise, descriptive, and interesting.…

One important but undervalued aspect of productive vocabulary is collocation--the ways in which words are combined with one another. To move from receptive to productive vocabulary, students need to learn a wide variety of ways that words collocate with each other. This paper describes the major types of collocations, typical collocational errors…

Fast mapping of novel words for objects was compared in 48 children/adolescents with Down syndrome and 48 mental-age matched children. The groups did not differ in their ability to infer a connection between the novel word and referent, comprehend the novel word after a single exposure, and produce the novel word correctly. (Author/JDD)

The guide was designed for speech pathologists, bilingual teachers, and specialists in English as a second language who work with Spanish-speaking children. The guide contains twenty illustrated stories that facilitate the learning of auditory sequencing, auditory and visual memory, receptive and expressive vocabulary, and expressive language…

Most second language acquisition research has been concerned with grammar or phonology and has failed to discuss lexical acquisition. The main reason for this neglect has been the lack of vocabulary study by linguists. However, recent concern with semantic theory has brought new impetus to work on lexical acquisition. Useful research on lexical…