Download PDF
Semin Speech Lang 2023; 44(05): 267-286
DOI: 10.1055/s-0043-1773785
Research Article Pediatric

Strategies for Teaching Verbs to Children with and without Language Impairment

Alison Prahl
1   Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Baylor University, Waco, Texas
,
Jena McDaniel
2   Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, Nashville, Tennessee
› Author Affiliations
› Further Information
   Permissions and Reprints

Abstract

The aim of this feasibility study was to extend the current evidence base on intransitive verb learning by evaluating and comparing three strategies (syntactic cues, semantic cues, combined cues) for teaching novel verbs to expand the vocabularies of children with and without language impairment. Twenty-three children with typical development, seven children with developmental language disorder, and eight children with Down syndrome participated in Studies 1, 2, and 3, respectively. They were taught novel, intransitive verbs using syntactic, semantic, and combined cues and then asked to receptively identify and expressively label the novel verbs. Across all conditions, participants learned novel verbs receptively with large effect sizes and participants with typical development and Down syndrome also learned the verbs expressively with large effect sizes. There were no significant differences between conditions. This study extends word-learning research by evaluating not only receptive but also expressive intransitive verb learning to expand one's vocabulary. The results provide positive evidence for three effective strategies for teaching intransitive verbs to children with and without language impairment.

Keywords

word learning - verbs - language impairment - Down syndrome

Note

This research was supported by the U.S. Department of Education Preparation of Leadership Personnel grant (H325D140087) and in part by Vanderbilt CTSA Award no. UL1TR000445 from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences and a Baylor University Undergraduate Research and Scholarly Achievement Research Grant. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the U.S. Department of Education or the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript. The authors have no conflict of interest to disclose. This study is registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03441685).


Data Availability Statement

The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.


Supplementary Material



Publication History

Article published online:
27 September 2023

© 2023. Thieme. All rights reserved.

Thieme Medical Publishers, Inc.
333 Seventh Avenue, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001, USA

 

  • References

  • Archibald LM. D, , & Gathercole SE. 2006; Short-term and working memory in specific language impairment. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders 41 (06) 675-693
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Aussems S, , & Kita S. 2019; Seeing iconic gestures while encoding events facilitates children's memory of these events. Child Development 90 (04) 1123-1137
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Barr E, Dungworth J, Hunter K, McFarlane M, , & Kubba H. 2011; The prevalence of ear, nose and throat disorders in preschool children with Down's syndrome in Glasgow. Scottish Medical Journal 56 (02) 98-103
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Benedict H. 1979; Early lexical development: comprehension and production. Journal of Child Language 6 (02) 183-200
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Bishop DV. M. 2017; Why is it so hard to reach agreement on terminology? The case of developmental language disorder (DLD). International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders 52 (06) 671-680
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Bishop DV. M, Snowling MJ, Thompson PA, Greenhalgh T, Consortium C. , & the CATALISE Consortium. 2016; CATALISE: A multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study. Identifying language impairments in children. PLoS One 11 (07) e0158753
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Black P, , & Wiliam D. 1998; Assessment and classroom learning. Assessment in Education: Principles, Policy & Practice 5 (01) 7-74
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Bock J, , & Levelt W. 1994. Language production: grammatical encoding. In: M. A. Gernsbacher (Ed.), Handbook of Psycholinguistics. (pp. 945–984). Academic Press
    Google Scholar
  • Bransford JD, Brown AL, , & Cocking RR. 2000. How people learn. National Academy Press
    Google Scholar
  • Brown L, Sherbenou RJ, , & Johnsen SK. 2010. Test of Nonverbal Intelligence – Fourth Edition. (TONI-4). Pro-Ed
    Google Scholar
  • Camarata SM, , & Leonard LB. 1985; Young children pronounce nouns more accurately than verbs: evidence for a semantic-phonological interaction. Papers and Reports on Child Language Development 24: 38-45
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Cao A, , & Lewis M. 2022; Quantifying the syntactic bootstrapping effect in verb learning: a meta-analytic synthesis. Developmental Science 25 (02) e13176
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Carr L, , & Johnston J. 2001; Morphological cues to verb meaning. Applied Psycholinguistics 22 (04) 601-618
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Carrow-Woolfolk E, , & Allen E. 2014. Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language – Fourth Edition (TACL-4). Pro-Ed
    Google Scholar
  • Cerbin W. 2011. Understanding learning styles: a conversation with Dr. Bill Cerbin. Interview with Nancy Chick. UW Colleges Virtual Teaching and Learning Center
    Google Scholar
  • Chapman RS, Bird EK, , & Schwartz SE. 1990; Fast mapping of words in event contexts by children with Down syndrome. The Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders 55 (04) 761-770
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Chapman RS, , & Hesketh LJ. 2000; Behavioral phenotype of individuals with Down syndrome. Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities Research Reviews 6 (02) 84-95
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Chapman RS, Sindberg H, Bridge C, Gigstead K, , & Hesketh L. 2006; Effect of memory support and elicited production on fast mapping of new words by adolescents with Down syndrome. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 49 (01) 3-15
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Cheng H, , & Furnham A. 2012; Childhood cognitive ability, education, and personality traits predict attainment in adult occupational prestige over 17 years. Journal of Vocational Behavior 81 (02) 218-226
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Childers JB, , & Tomasello M. 2002; Two-year-olds learn novel nouns, verbs, and conventional actions from massed or distributed exposures. Developmental Psychology 38 (06) 967-978
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Cohen J. 1988. Statistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed.). Erlbaum
    Google Scholar
  • Coolican H. 2009. Research Methods and Statistics in Psychology. Hodder
    Google Scholar
  • Crowe K, , & McLeod S. 2020; Children's English consonant acquisition in the United States: a review. American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology 29 (04) 2155-2169
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Dawson JI, Stout CE, , & Eyer JA. 2003. SPELT-3: Structured Photographic Expressive Language Test–Third Edition. Janelle Publications
    Google Scholar
  • Edwards J, Beckman ME, , & Munson B. 2004; The interaction between vocabulary size and phonotactic probability effects on children's production accuracy and fluency in nonword repetition. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 47 (02) 421-436
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Ehrler D, , & McGhee R. 2008. Primary Test of Nonverbal Intelligence (PTONI). Pro-Ed
    Google Scholar
  • Eyer JA, Leonard LB, Bedore LM, McGregor KK, Anderson B, , & Viescas R. 2002; Fast mapping of verbs by children with specific language impairment. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics 16 (01) 59-77
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Fisher C, Klingler SL, , & Song HJ. 2006; What does syntax say about space? 2-year-olds use sentence structure to learn new prepositions. Cognition 101 (01) B19-B29
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Fritz CO, Morris PE, , & Richler JJ. 2012; Effect size estimates: current use, calculations, and interpretation. Journal of Experimental Psychology General 141 (01) 2-18
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Fudala JB, , & Stegall S. 2017. Arizona Articulation Proficiency Scale - Fourth Revision (Arizona–4). Western Psychological Services
    Google Scholar
  • Gentner D. 2006. Why verbs are hard to learn. In: K. Hirsh-Pasek & R. Golinkoff, (Eds.) Action Meets Word: How Children Learn Verbs. (pp. 544–564). Oxford University Press
    CrossrefGoogle Scholar
  • Gleitman L. 1990; The structural sources of verb meanings. Language Acquisition 1 (01) 3-55
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Glenberg AM, Sato M, Cattaneo L, Riggio L, Palumbo D, , & Buccino G. 2008; Processing abstract language modulates motor system activity. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 61 (06) 905-919
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Golinkoff RM, Jacquet RC, Hirsh-Pasek K, , & Nandakumar R. 1996; Lexical principles may underlie the learning of verbs. Child Development 67 (06) 3101-3119
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Goodrich W, , & Hudson Kam CL. 2009; Co-speech gesture as input in verb learning. Developmental Science 12 (01) 81-87
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Gordon KR, Storkel HL, Lowry SL, , & Ohlmann NB. 2021; Word learning by preschool-age children with developmental language disorder: impaired encoding and robust consolidation during slow mapping. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 64 (11) 4250-4270
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Hadley PA, Rispoli M, , & Hsu N. 2016; Toddlers' verb lexicon diversity and grammatical outcomes. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 47 (01) 44-58
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Hick RF, Botting N, , & Conti-Ramsden G. 2005; Short-term memory and vocabulary development in children with Down syndrome and children with specific language impairment. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 47 (08) 532-538
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Horvath S, , & Arunachalam S. 2019; Optimal contexts for verb learning. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups 4 (06) 1239-1249
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Imai M, Li L, Haryu E, Okada H, Hirsh-Pasek K, Golinkoff RM, , & Shigematsu J. 2008; Novel noun and verb learning in Chinese-, English-, and Japanese-speaking children. Child Development 79 (04) 979-1000
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Ionescu T, , & Vasc D. 2014; Embodied cognition: challenges for psychology and education. Procedia: Social and Behavioral Sciences 128: 275-280
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Jackson E, Leitão S, Claessen M, , & Boyes M. 2019; The evaluation of word-learning abilities in people with developmental language disorder: a scoping review. International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders 54 (05) 742-755
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Jarrold C, Thorn AS, , & Stephens E. 2009; The relationships among verbal short-term memory, phonological awareness, and new word learning: evidence from typical development and Down syndrome. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 102 (02) 196-218
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Johnson C, , & Goswami U. 2010; Phonological awareness, vocabulary, and reading in deaf children with cochlear implants. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 53 (02) 237-261
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Johnson VE, , & de Villiers JG. 2009; Syntactic frames in fast mapping verbs: effect of age, dialect, and clinical status. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 52 (03) 610-622
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Kan PF, , & Windsor J. 2010; Word learning in children with primary language impairment: a meta-analysis. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 53 (03) 739-756
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Lederberg AR, , & Spencer PE. 2009; Word-learning abilities in deaf and hard-of-hearing preschoolers: effect of lexicon size and language modality. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 14 (01) 44-62
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Leonard LB. 2014; Specific language impairment across languages. Child Development Perspectives 8 (01) 1-5
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Leonard LB, Schwartz RG, Chapman K, Rowan LE, Prelock PA, Terrell B, Weiss AL, , & Messick C. 1982; Early lexical acquisition in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 25 (04) 554-564
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Leonard S, Bower C, Petterson B, , & Leonard H. 1999; Medical aspects of school-aged children with Down syndrome. Developmental Medicine and Child Neurology 41 (10) 683-688
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Loveall SJ, Channell MM, Phillips BA, Abbeduto L, , & Conners FA. 2016; Receptive vocabulary analysis in Down syndrome. Research in Developmental Disabilities 55: 161-172
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Lund E. 2019; Comparing word characteristic effects on vocabulary of children with cochlear implants. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 24 (04) 424-434
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Marchman VA, , & Fernald A. 2008; Speed of word recognition and vocabulary knowledge in infancy predict cognitive and language outcomes in later childhood. Developmental Science 11 (03) F9-F16
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Maris M, Wojciechowski M, Van de Heyning P, , & Boudewyns A. 2014; A cross-sectional analysis of otitis media with effusion in children with Down syndrome. European Journal of Pediatrics 173 (10) 1319-1325
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Martin NA, , & Brownell R. 2011. Expressive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test – Fourth Edition (EOWPVT-4). Academic Therapy Publications
    Google Scholar
  • Martin NA, , & Brownell R. 2011. Receptive One-Word Picture Vocabulary Test – Fourth Edition (ROWPVT-4). Academic Therapy Publications
    Google Scholar
  • McDuffie AS, Sindberg HA, Hesketh LJ, , & Chapman RS. 2007; Use of speaker intent and grammatical cues in fast-mapping by adolescents with Down syndrome. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 50 (06) 1546-1561
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • McGregor KK, Sheng L, , & Ball T. 2007; Complexities of expressive word learning over time. Language, Speech, and Hearing Services in Schools 38 (04) 353-364
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Naigles L. 1990; Children use syntax to learn verb meanings. Journal of Child Language 17 (02) 357-374
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Nelson K. 1973; Structure and strategy in learning to talk. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 38 (1/2), 1-135
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Nightengale E, Yoon P, Wolter-Warmerdam K, Daniels D, , & Hickey F. 2017; Understanding hearing and hearing loss in children with Down syndrome. American Journal of Audiology 26 (03) 301-308
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Niskar AS, Kieszak SM, Holmes A, Esteban E, Rubin C, , & Brody DJ. 1998; Prevalence of hearing loss among children 6 to 19 years of age: the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. Journal of the American Medical Association 279 (14) 1071-1075
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Oetting JB. 1999; Children with SLI use argument structure cues to learn verbs. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 42 (05) 1261-1274
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Oetting JB, Hadley PA, , & Schwartz R. 2009. Morphosyntax in child language disorders. In: R. G. Schwartz (Ed.) Handbook of Child Language Disorders. (pp. 341–364). Psychology Press
    Google Scholar
  • Qi S, , & Mitchell RE. 2012; Large-scale academic achievement testing of deaf and hard-of-hearing students: Past, present, and future. Journal of Deaf Studies and Deaf Education 17 (01) 1-18
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Rice ML, Buhr JC, , & Nemeth M. 1990; Fast mapping word-learning abilities of language-delayed preschoolers. The Journal of Speech and Hearing Disorders 55 (01) 33-42
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Rice ML, , & Wexler K. 1996; Toward tense as a clinical marker of specific language impairment in English-speaking children. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 39 (06) 1239-1257
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Rice ML, Wexler K, , & Hershberger S. 1998; Tense over time: the longitudinal course of tense acquisition in children with specific language impairment. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 41 (06) 1412-1431
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Riches NG, Tomasello M, , & Conti-Ramsden G. 2005; Verb learning in children with SLI: frequency and spacing effects. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 48 (06) 1397-1411
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Schwartz RG, , & Leonard LB. 1984; Words, objects, and actions in early lexical acquisition. Journal of Speech and Hearing Research 27 (01) 119-127
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Shargorodsky J, Curhan SG, Curhan GC, , & Eavey R. 2010; Change in prevalence of hearing loss in US adolescents. Journal of the American Medical Association 304 (07) 772-778
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Shulman C, , & Guberman A. 2007; Acquisition of verb meaning through syntactic cues: a comparison of children with autism, children with specific language impairment (SLI) and children with typical language development (TLD). Journal of Child Language 34 (02) 411-423
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Stelmachowicz PG, Pittman AL, Hoover BM, Lewis DE, , & Moeller MP. 2004; The importance of high-frequency audibility in the speech and language development of children with hearing loss. Archives of Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery 130 (05) 556-562
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Stoel-Gammon C. 2011; Relationships between lexical and phonological development in young children. Journal of Child Language 38 (01) 1-34
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Storkel HL. 2003; Learning new words II: phonotactic probability in verb learning. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 46 (06) 1312-1323
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Storkel HL, , & Hoover JR. 2010; An online calculator to compute phonotactic probability and neighborhood density on the basis of child corpora of spoken American English. Behavior Research Methods 42 (02) 497-506
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Storkel HL, , & Lee SY. 2011; The independent effects of phonotactic probability and neighbourhood density on lexical acquisition by preschool children. Language and Cognitive Processes 26 (02) 191-211
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Tedeschi AS, Roizen NJ, Taylor HG, Murray G, Curtis CA, , & Parikh AS. 2015; The prevalence of congenital hearing loss in neonates with Down syndrome. The Journal of Pediatrics 166 (01) 168-171
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Thordardottir E. 2010; Towards evidence-based practice in language intervention for bilingual children. Journal of Communication Disorders 43 (06) 523-537
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Tomasello M. 2000; The social-pragmatic theory of word learning. Pragmatics 10 (04) 401-414
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Tomasello M, , & Kruger AC. 1992; Joint attention on actions: acquiring verbs in ostensive and non-ostensive contexts. Journal of Child Language 19 (02) 311-333
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Vogt S, , & Kauschke C. 2017; Observing iconic gestures enhances word learning in typically developing children and children with specific language impairment. Journal of Child Language 44 (06) 1458-1484
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • Wakefield EM, Hall C, James KH, , & Goldin-Meadow S. 2018; Gesture for generalization: gesture facilitates flexible learning of words for actions on objects. Developmental Science 21 (05) e12656
    CrossrefPubMedGoogle Scholar