Vocabulary Breadth and Depth in Adults With Developmental Language Disorder.
Purpose: Developmental language disorder (DLD) affects approximately 7%-11% of children and often persists into adulthood, contributing to long-term challenges in education, employment, and health. Although vocabulary challenges are welldocumented in children with DLD, relatively little is known abo...
| Published in: | Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research Vol. 69; no. 8; pp. 3892 - 3905 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | Article |
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American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
Aug2026
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=196185588&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 196185588 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 10924388 1SM jtl: Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research issn: 10924388 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Aug2026 vid: 69 iid: 8 pid: 42 pub: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association artinfo: ui: 196185588 10.1044/2026_JSLHR-25-00570 ppf: 3892 ppct: 13 formats: fmt: @attributes: type: P size: 1.3MB tig: atl: Vocabulary Breadth and Depth in Adults With Developmental Language Disorder. aug: au: Wang, Tingting Hilker, Charlotte Duff, Dawna Hendrickson, Kristi affil: Communication Sciences and Disorders, The University of Iowa, Iowa City Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences, Binghamton University, NY su: Intellect Language disorders Vocabulary Adults Research funding Descriptive statistics Longitudinal method Data analysis software Epidemiological research Regression analysis sug: subj: Intellect Language disorders Vocabulary Adults Research funding Descriptive statistics Longitudinal method Data analysis software Epidemiological research Regression analysis ab: Purpose: Developmental language disorder (DLD) affects approximately 7%-11% of children and often persists into adulthood, contributing to long-term challenges in education, employment, and health. Although vocabulary challenges are welldocumented in children with DLD, relatively little is known about how these difficulties manifest in adulthood. The current study examines vocabulary knowledge in adults with DLD along two dimensions: breadth (the number of words for which an individual can retrieve a meaning) and depth (quality of semantic knowledge for known words). Method: Vocabulary breadth was assessed using the standardized Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Fifth Edition (PPVT-5), while a novel scoring system was developed to evaluate vocabulary depth in a well-documented definition task (Wechsler Abbreviated Scale of Intelligence-Second Edition [WASI-II] Vocabulary subtest). Linear regression analyses were conducted to examine group differences between adults with DLD and peers with typical language (TL). Results: Adults with DLD (n = 39) scored significantly lower than did their peers with TL (n = 57) on both vocabulary breadth and depth. The vocabulary breadth measure (PPVT-5) yielded a numerically larger effect size than did the vocabulary depth measure (WASI-II). Conclusion: These findings characterize the long-term development of vocabulary skills in adults with DLD and highlight the importance of considering both vocabulary breadth and depth when assessing language profiles in adulthood. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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