Triggering word learning in children with Language Impairment: the effect of phonotactic probability and neighbourhood density.
- Resource Type
- Article
- Authors
- MCKEAN, CRISTINA; LETTS, CAROLYN; HOWARD, DAVID
- Source
- Journal of Child Language; Nov2014, Vol. 41 Issue 6, p1224-1248, 25p
- Subject
- Children
Language acquisition
Learning strategies
Age distribution
Analysis of covariance
Language disorders in children
Research funding
T-test (Statistics)
- Language
- ISSN
- 03050009
The effect of phonotactic probability (PP) and neighbourhood density (ND) on triggering word learning was examined in children with Language Impairment (3;04–6;09) and compared to Typically Developing children. Nonwords, varying PP and ND orthogonally, were presented in a story context and their learning tested using a referent identification task. Group comparisons with receptive vocabulary as a covariate found no group differences in overall scores or in the influence of PP or ND. Therefore, there was no evidence of atypical lexical or phonological processing. ‘Convergent’ PP/ND (High PP/High ND; Low PP/Low ND) was optimal for word learning in both groups. This bias interacted with vocabulary knowledge. ‘Divergent’ PP/ND word scores (High PP/Low ND; Low PP/High ND) were positively correlated with vocabulary so the ‘divergence disadvantage’ reduced as vocabulary knowledge grew; an interaction hypothesized to represent developmental changes in lexical–phonological processing linked to the emergence of phonological representations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]