scholarly journals Bilingual adjusted vocabulary: A developmentally-informed bilingual vocabulary measure

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ana Maria Gonzalez-Barrero ◽  
Esther Schott ◽  
Krista Byers-Heinlein
Keyword(s):  
Parent Report ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Learning Abilities ◽  
New Approach ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Traditional Approaches ◽  
Cross Language

Vocabulary size is one of the most important early metrics of language development. Assessing vocabulary in bilingual children is complex because bilinguals learn words in two languages, which include translation equivalents (cross-language synonyms). We collected expressive vocabulary data from English and French monolinguals (n = 220), and English–French bilinguals (n = 184) aged 18–33 months, via parent report using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories, and quantified bilinguals’ vocabulary size using different approaches to counting translation equivalents. Our results showed that traditional approaches yield larger (word vocabulary) or smaller (concept vocabulary) quantification of bilinguals’ vocabulary knowledge relative to monolinguals. We propose a new metric, the bilingual adjusted vocabulary, that yields similar vocabulary sizes for monolinguals and bilinguals across different ages. Uniquely, this approach counts translation equivalents differently depending on the child’s age. This developmentally-informed bilingual vocabulary measure reveals differences in word learning abilities across ages, and provides a new approach to measure vocabulary in bilingual toddlers.

scholarly journals Lexical Selectivity of 2-Year-Old Children With and Without Repaired Cleft Palate Based on Parent Report

2020 ◽  
Vol 57 (9) ◽  
pp. 1117-1124
Author(s):  
Adriane Baylis ◽  
Linda D. Vallino ◽  
Juliana Powell ◽  
David J. Zajac
Keyword(s):  
Cleft Palate ◽  
Cleft Lip ◽  
Cleft Lip And Palate ◽  
Parent Report ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Ventilation Tubes ◽  
History Of ◽  
Macarthur Communicative Development Inventory

Objective: To determine vocabulary and lexical selectivity characteristics of children with and without repaired cleft palate at 24 months of age, based on parent report. Participants: Forty-nine children with repaired cleft palate, with or without cleft lip (CP±L; 25 males; 21 cleft lip and palate, 28 CP only), 29 children with a history of otitis media (OM) and ventilation tubes (21 males), and 25 typically developing (TD) children (13 males). Main Outcome Measure(s): Parent-reported expressive vocabulary was determined using the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences. Results: Vocabulary size was reduced for children with repaired CP±L compared to children in the TD group ( P = .025) but not the OM group ( P = .403). Mean percentage of words beginning with sonorants did not differ across groups ( P = .383). Vocabulary size predicted sonorant use for all groups ( P = .001). Conclusions: Children with repaired CP±L exhibit similar lexical selectivity relative to word initial sounds compared to noncleft TD and OM peers at 24 months of age, based on parent report.

Comparing productive vocabulary measures from the CDI and a systematic diary study

1999 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 177-185 ◽  
Author(s):  
BYRON F. ROBINSON ◽  
CAROLYN B. MERVIS
Keyword(s):  
Growth Curves ◽  
Diary Study ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Early Language ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Early Language Development ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Best Fitting ◽  
Fitting Model

Expressive vocabulary data gathered during a systematic diary study of one male child's early language development are compared to data that would have resulted from longitudinal administration of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories spoken vocabulary checklist (CDI). Comparisons are made for (1) the number of words at monthly intervals (9;10.15 to 2;0.15), (2) proportion of words by lexical class (i.e. noun, predicate, closed class, ‘other’), (3) growth curves. The CDI underestimates the number of words in the diary study, with the underestimation increasing as vocabulary size increases. The proportion of diary study words appearing on the CDI differed as a function of lexical class. Finally, despite the differences in vocabulary size, logistic curves proved to be the best fitting model to characterize vocabulary development as measured by both the diary study and the CDI. Implications for the longitudinal use of the CDI are discussed.

scholarly journals Infant-directed speech from seven to nineteen months has similar acoustic properties but different functions

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (5) ◽  
pp. 1035-1053 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marina KALASHNIKOVA ◽  
Denis BURNHAM
Keyword(s):  
Longitudinal Study ◽  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Speech Quality ◽  
Acoustic Properties ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Three Components

AbstractThis longitudinal study assessed three acoustic components of maternal infant-directed speech (IDS) – pitch, affect, and vowel hyperarticulation – in relation to infants’ age and their expressive vocabulary size. These three individual components were measured in IDS addressed to infants at 7, 9, 11, 15, and 19 months (N = 18). All three components were exaggerated at all ages in mothers’ IDS compared to their adult-directed speech. Importantly, the only significant predictor of infants’ expressive vocabulary size at 15 and 19 months was vowel hyperarticulation, but only at 9 months and beyond, not at 7 months, and not pitch or affect at any age. These results set apart vowel hyperarticulation in IDS to infants as the critical IDS component for vocabulary development. Thus IDS, specifically the degree of vowel hyperarticulation therein, is a vehicle by which parents can provide the most optimal speech quality for their infants’ linguistic and communicative development.

Parental reports of communicative development at the age of 36 months: The Estonian CDI-III

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-83
Author(s):  
Tiia Tulviste ◽  
Astra Schults
Keyword(s):  
Day Care ◽  
Parent Report ◽  
Individual Variability ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Communicative Skills ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Language Difficulties ◽  
Parental Reports ◽  
Language Measures ◽  
The Impact

Parental reports are a widely-used source of information about infants’ and toddlers’ communicative skills, but parent-report instruments valid for children older than 30 months are less known. This study explored individual variability in children’s communicative skills at the age of 3;0 via parental reports using the Estonian (E) CDI-III. The validity of ECDI-III was established through correlations with another parent-report instrument (ECDI-II) and a standardized examiner-administered language assessment (New Reynell Developmental Language Scales; NRDLS). A hundred Estonian-speaking children ( M age = 35.77 months, age range from 34 to 39 months; 20 of them with reported language difficulties) participated in the study. Relations between different communicative skills and the impact of such factors as the child’s gender, maternal and paternal education, reported language difficulties, the number of siblings, and day care attendance on variability in vocabulary size were also considered. The results showed that the ECDI-III components were moderately to strongly associated with each other, with the ECDI-II and NRDLS. Children with reported language difficulties scored lower on all language measures, except for orthographic awareness. Girls, children of more educated mothers, children with older siblings, and those who had attended day care for more months obtained higher vocabulary scores.

scholarly journals Cross-language synonyms in the lexicons of bilingual infants: one language or two?

1995 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 345-368 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Zurer Pearson ◽  
Sylvia Fernández ◽  
D. K. Oller
Keyword(s):  
Parent Report ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Early Age ◽  
Stages Of Development ◽  
Bilingual Child ◽  
Empirical Claim ◽  
Language System ◽  
Strong Principle ◽  
Cross Language ◽  
Rule Out

ABSTRACTThis study tests the widely-cited claim from Volterra & Taeschner (1978), which is reinforced by Clark's Principle Of Contrast (1987), that young simultaneous bilingual children reject cross-language synonyms in their earliest lexicons. The rejection of translation equivalents is taken by Volterra & Taeschner as support for the idea that the bilingual child possesses a single-language system which includes elements from both languages. We examine first the accuracy of the empirical claim and then its adequacy as support for the argument that bilingual children do not have independent lexical systems in each language. The vocabularies of 27 developing bilinguals were recorded at varying intervals between ages 0;8 and 2;6, using the MacArthur GDI, a standardized parent report form in English and Spanish. The two single-language vocabularies of each bilingual child were compared to determine how many pairs of translation equivalents (TEs) were reported for each child at different stages of development. TEs were observed for all children but one, with an average of 30% of all words coded in the two languages, both at early stages (in vocabularies of 2–12 words) and later (up to 500 words). Thus, Volterra & Taeschner's empirical claim was not upheld. Further, the number of TEs in the bilinguals' two lexicons was shown to be similar to the number of lexical items which co-occurred in the monolingual lexicons of two different children, as observed in 34 random pairings for between-child comparisons. It remains to be shown, therefore, that the bilinguals' lexicons are not composed of two independent systems at a very early age. Furthermore, the results appear to rule out the operation of a strong principle of contrast across languages in early bilingualism.

scholarly journals Early Vocabulary Profiles of Young Deaf Children Who Use Cochlear Implants

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 1254-1269
Author(s):  
Jongmin Jung ◽  
Jessa Reed ◽  
Laura Wagner ◽  
Julie Stephens ◽  
Andrea D. Warner-Czyz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Receptive Vocabulary ◽  
Deaf Children ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Only Children ◽  
Closed Class ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
The Mean

Purpose This study examined vocabulary profiles in young cochlear implant (CI) recipients and in children with normal hearing (NH) matched on receptive vocabulary size to improve our understanding of young CI recipients' acquisition of word categories (e.g., common nouns or closed-class words). Method We compared receptive and expressive vocabulary profiles between young CI recipients ( n = 48; mean age at activation = 15.61 months, SD = 4.20) and children with NH ( n = 48). The two groups were matched on receptive vocabulary size as measured by the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories (Fenson et al., 2006): Words and Gestures form. The CI group had, on average, 8.98 months of hearing experience. The mean chronological age at completing the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories was 23.99 months ( SD = 5.14) for the CI group and 13.72 months ( SD = 1.50) for the NH group. Results The CI group had a larger expressive vocabulary size than the receptive vocabulary size–matched NH group. The larger expressive vocabulary size was associated with the group difference in social words but not with common nouns. The analyses for predicate words and closed-class words included only children who produced the target categories. The CI group had a larger proportion of predicate words than the NH group, but no difference was found in closed-class words in expressive vocabulary. Conclusions Differences found in expressive vocabulary profiles may be affected by spoken vocabulary size and their age. A further examination is warranted using language samples to understand the effect of language input on children's vocabulary profiles.

scholarly journals Comparing Word Characteristic Effects on Vocabulary of Children with Cochlear Implants

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 424-434
Author(s):  
Emily Lund
Keyword(s):  
Cochlear Implants ◽  
Neighborhood Density ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Chronological Age ◽  
Word Knowledge ◽  
Word Form ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Phonotactic Probability ◽  
Density Results

Abstract Many studies have evaluated overall vocabulary knowledge of children who use cochlear implants, but there has been minimal focus on how word form characteristics affect this knowledge. This study evaluates the effects of neighborhood density and phonotactic probability on the expressive vocabulary of 81 children between five and seven years old (n = 27 cochlear implant users, n = 27 children matched for chronological age, and n = 27 children matched for vocabulary size). Children were asked to name pictures associated with words that have common and rare phonotactic probability and high and sparse neighborhood density. Results indicate that children with cochlear implants, similar to both groups of children with typical hearing, tend to know words with common probability/high density or with rare probability/ sparse density. Patterns of word knowledge for children with cochlear implants mirrored younger children matched for vocabulary size rather than age-matched children with typical hearing.

Mothers' talk to children with Down Syndrome, language impairment, or typical development about familiar and unfamiliar nouns and verbs

2015 ◽  
Vol 43 (5) ◽  
pp. 1072-1102 ◽  
Author(s):  
ELIZABETH KAY-RAINING BIRD ◽  
PATRICIA CLEAVE
Keyword(s):  
Down Syndrome ◽  
Language Impairment ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Vocabulary Knowledge ◽  
Typical Development ◽  
Expressive Vocabulary ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Children With Down Syndrome ◽  
Short Utterances ◽  
Fine Tune

AbstractThis study investigated how forty-six mothers modified their talk about familiar and unfamiliar nouns and verbs when interacting with their children with Down Syndrome (DS), language impairment (LI), or typical development (TD). Children (MLUs < 2·7) were group-matched on expressive vocabulary size. Mother–child dyads were recorded playing with toy animals (noun task) and action boxes (verb task). Mothers of children with DS used shorter utterances and more verb labels in salient positions than the other two groups. All mothers produced unfamiliar target nouns in short utterances, in utterance-final position, and with the referent perceptually available. Mothers also talked more about familiar nouns and verbs and labelled them more often and more consistently. These findings suggest that mothers of children in the early period of language development fine-tune their input in ways that reflect their children's vocabulary knowledge, but do so differently for nouns and verbs.

scholarly journals A comparison of the transition from first words to grammar in English and Italian

1999 ◽  
Vol 26 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-111 ◽  
Author(s):  
CRISTINA CASELLI ◽  
PAOLA CASADIO ◽  
ELIZABETH BATES
Keyword(s):  
Parent Report ◽  
Social Constraints ◽  
Grammatical Function ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Function Words ◽  
Grammatical Development ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Grammatical Complexity ◽  
Macarthur Communicative Development Inventory ◽  
Age Range

Cross-linguistic similarities and differences in early lexical and grammatical development are reported for 1001 English-speaking children and 386 Italian-speaking children between 1;6 and 2;6. Parents completed the English or Italian versions of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences, a parent report instrument that provides information about vocabulary size, vocabulary composition and grammatical complexity across this age range. The onset and subsequent growth of nouns, predicates, function words and social terms proved to be quite similar in both languages. No support was found for the prediction that verbs would emerge earlier in Italian, although Italians did produce a higher proportion of social terms, and there were small but intriguing differences in the shape of the growth curve for grammatical function words. A strikingly similar nonlinear relationship between grammatical complexity and vocabulary size was observed in both languages, and examination of the order in which function words are acquired also yielded more similarities than differences. However, a comparison of the longest sentences reported for a subset of children demonstrates large cross-linguistic differences in the amount of morphology that has been acquired in children matched for vocabulary size. Discussion revolves around the interplay between language-specific variations in the input to young children, and universal cognitive and social constraints on language development.

scholarly journals A bilingual–monolingual comparison of young children's vocabulary size: Evidence from comprehension and production

2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (6) ◽  
pp. 1189-1211 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANNICK DE HOUWER ◽  
MARC H. BORNSTEIN ◽  
DIANE L. PUTNICK
Keyword(s):  
Vocabulary Development ◽  
Word Production ◽  
Interindividual Variation ◽  
Bilingual Children ◽  
Group Differences ◽  
Vocabulary Size ◽  
Word Comprehension ◽  
Communicative Development ◽  
Comprehensive Comparison ◽  
Empirical Foundation

ABSTRACTIt is often assumed that young bilinguals are lexically delayed in comparison to monolinguals. A comprehensive comparison of comprehension and production vocabulary in 31 firstborn bilingual and 30 matched monolingual children fails to find empirical foundation for this assumption. Several raters completed Dutch and French adaptations of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories for children aged 13 and 20 months. At 13 months, bilinguals understood more words than did monolinguals; at 20 months, monolinguals knew more Dutch words than did bilinguals (combining comprehension and production). There were no group differences for word production or for Dutch word comprehension. Both groups understood and produced the same number of lexicalized meanings; ratios of word comprehension to word production did not differ; interindividual variation was similar. This study underscores the importance of conducting bilingual–monolingual comparisons with matched groups and suggests that if individual bilingual children appear to be slow in early vocabulary development, reasons other than their bilingualism should be investigated.

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