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Researchers in the field of language development have long studied the unique characteristics of specific language impairment (SLI) with the intention of adequately describing the disorder, establishing sub-classifications within the [...], Purpose: The purpose of this study was to contribute to the current understanding of how children with specific language impairment (SLI) organize their mental lexicons. The study examined semantic and phonological priming in children with and without SLI. Method: Thirteen children (7;0-11;3 [years; months]) with SLI and 13 age-matched children with typical language development participated in this study. Prime--target pairs (semantic, phonological, and repetition) were embedded within a running list of words so that the actual pairs were imperceptible. Reaction times to an animacy judgment (alive vs. not alive) were analyzed. The experiment featured 500-ms and 1,000-ms interstimulus intervals (ISIs) between primes and targets. Results: Children with SLI exhibited priming effects in the repetition condition at both ISIs; however, phonological and semantic effects were absent. Typically developing children exhibited effects in the repetition at both ISIs. Semantic and phonological effects were absent at 500 ms ISIs, but present at 1,000 ms ISIs. Conclusions: Although children with SLI have priming mechanisms similar to those of their age-matched peers, the absence of semantic and phonological priming suggests that these connections are not strong enough by themselves to yield priming effects. These findings are discussed in the context of semantic and phonological priming, representation, and generalized slowing. KEYWORDS: semantic priming, phonological priming, word recognition, children, specific language impairment

AN INSTRUCTIONAL STRATEGY was investigated that addressed the needs of deaf and hard of hearing students through a conceptually based sign language vocabulary intervention. A single-subject multiple-baseline design was used to determine the effects of the vocabulary intervention on word recognition, production, and comprehension. Six students took part in the 30-minute intervention over 6-8 weeks, learning 12 new vocabulary words each week by means of the three intervention components: (a) word introduction, (b) word activity (semantic mapping), and (c) practice. Results indicated that the vocabulary intervention successfully improved all students' recognition, production, and comprehension of the vocabulary words and phrases.

We compared the effects of tact training, listener training, and two types of intraverbal training on 2 children's acquisition of foreign-language tact, listener, and intraverbal relations. The children received all four types of training simultaneously with different stimulus sets. Native-foreign intraverbal training presented the greatest difficulty with acquisition for both children. All types of training generated increases in correct responding on tests for emergent relations, and some emerged to criterion. However, no type of training resulted in criterion-level performance on all relations. DESCRIPTORS: emergent relations, foreign-language instruction, intraverbals, listener behavior, tacts

Shared book reading, and the conversation that accompanies it, can facilitate young children's vocabulary growth. To identify the features of extratextual questions that help 3-year-olds learn unfamiliar words during shared book reading, two experiments explored the impact of cognitive demand level, placement, and an approximation to scaffolding. Asking questions about target words improved children's comprehension and production of word-referent associations, and children with larger vocabularies learned more than children with smaller vocabularies. Neither the demand level nor placement of questions differentially affected word learning. However, an approximation to scaffolding, in which adults asked low demand questions when words first appeared and high demand questions later, did facilitate children's deeper understanding of word meanings as assessed with a definition task. These results are unique in experimentally demonstrating the value for word learning of shifting from less to more challenging input over time. Discussion focuses on why a scaffolding-like procedure improves children's acquisition of elaborated word meanings. Keywords: shared book reading, word learning, vocabulary, scaffolding, extratextual questions

As educators, we know that environment influences learning and, in particular, that classroom environments influence literacy development (Wolfersberger, Reutzel, Sudweeks, & Fawson, 2004). Studies provide evidence of the importance of [...]

This article presents results from 2 studies comparing 3 approaches to teaching vocabulary during storybook reading: (a) contextual instruction, based on connecting words to their use in books and to children's personal experience; (b) analytical instruction, which enhances contextual instruction with semantic analysis of words in contexts other than the books and children's experience; and (c) anchored instruction, which augments analytical instruction with attention to the spoken and written forms of words. Each approach was implemented by classroom teachers in 2 of 6 kindergarten classrooms from 2 schools for 6 weeks. In the first study, I compared the effects of these approaches on 94 children's learning of taught words at the end of the intervention. The second study investigated the effects of instruction with 50 children from the original study 6 months after the intervention, when the children were in first grade. Of the children in the study, about a third were English language learners, and about a third were from low socioeconomic status families. I assessed children's knowledge of the words targeted in the intervention through a picture and oral vocabulary measure that I developed based on the format of the Test of Language Development P:3, which I administered and used as a control for children's general vocabulary knowledge. Results suggested that both the analytical and anchored methods of instruction were significantly more effective than the contextual method at promoting children's learning of words targeted in instruction.

Vocabulary is defined and a short historical account of vocabulary assessment is presented.

A language and literacy intervention was implemented in 10 Head Start classrooms. Teachers were trained in specific book reading and conversation strategies. The focus of the intervention was to train teachers how to increase opportunities for language and vocabulary development in young children. At the end of the year, children in the intervention classrooms performed significantly better than children in the control classrooms on the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test--III and the Expressive One-Word Vocabulary Test (3rd cd.). In addition, teachers in the intervention classrooms used strategies that promoted language development during book reading and other classroom activities. Head Start teachers can be trained to implement strategies that have positive effects on children's language and literacy development. Keywords: language, literacy, intervention, Head Start, vocabulary

PRESCHOOLERS' ACQUISITION OF SCIENTIFIC VOCABULARY THROUGH REPEATED READ-ALOUD EVENTS, RETELLINGS, AND HANDS-ON SCIENCE ACTIVITIES. Cynthia B. Leung. Reading Psychology, Vol. 29, No. 2 (2008): 165-193. This study explored 3- and [...]