Word learning and phonological representations in children who are late talkers
Item
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Title
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Word learning and phonological representations in children who are late talkers
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Identifier
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d_2009_2013:300167251e2c:09999
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identifier
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10088
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Creator
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MacRoy-Higgins, Michelle,
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Contributor
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Richard G. Schwartz | Valerie L. Shafer
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Date
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2009
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Speech therapy | language | late talkers | phonology | phonotactic probability | toddlers | word learning
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Abstract
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Toddlers who are late talkers are at risk for lasting speech and language deficits, which can negatively affect academic performance in their school years. These toddlers display delays in lexical and phonological acquisition that have not been adequately described or explained. Children who are late talkers may inefficiently store the phonological forms of newly learned words, as compared with their typically developing peers. Typically developing toddlers recognize and use regularities in their language to learn new words. For example, phonotactic probability facilitates new word learning in typically developing preschool children. It is possible that late talkers are not able to recognize and take advantage of regularities in their language like their typically developing peers. To examine how late talkers store the phonological forms of words, they were taught nonwords, which referred to unique objects, over a period of ten training sessions. The nonwords differed in phonotactic probability (common vs. rare sound sequences). The detail of phonological representations, or how toddlers store the phonological forms of these novel words, was examined in three ways. After the ten training sessions, participants were asked to identify (point to) each novel word. Then, they were asked to name (label) each novel word and speech sound production accuracy was examined. Lastly, they completed a preferential looking paradigm; participants heard target words pronounced correctly or incorrectly while seeing images of novel objects. Looking time at the images after hearing correct versus incorrect targets served as the dependent measure to examine underlying phonological representations. Typically developing toddlers showed a preference for common sound sequences, revealing phonological organization. They more often and more accurately produced high phonotactic probability words than rare phonotactic probability words. They exhibited detailed phonological representations for high probability words and not for low probability words. Toddlers who are late talkers did not exhibit similar phonological production and perception skills. In contrast to controls, late talkers did not have a preference for common sound sequences in production or perception tasks. Late talkers' underlying deficits with language may be due to inefficient phonological organization skills. Therefore, late talkers may benefit from intervention specifically targeting phonological organization.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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2009_2013.csv
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degree
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Ph.D.
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Program
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Speech and Hearing Sciences
