Fast Mapping Skills in the Developing Lexicon.

Purpose: This preliminary investigation was a longitudinal study of fast mapping skills in normally developing children, 16-18 months of age. The purpose was to examine the effects of practice on the accessibility of words in lexical memory. Method: Eight children were taught the names of 24 unfamil...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Publicado en:Journal of Speech, Language & Hearing Research Vol. 50; no. 3; pp. 682 - 698
Autores principales: Gershkoff-Stowe, Lisa, Hahn, Eric R.
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association June 2007
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
Descripción
Sumario:Purpose: This preliminary investigation was a longitudinal study of fast mapping skills in normally developing children, 16-18 months of age. The purpose was to examine the effects of practice on the accessibility of words in lexical memory. Method: Eight children were taught the names of 24 unfamiliar objects over 12 weekly training sessions. The amount of practice children had with individual words varied as a function of session. Data were compared to a control group of children—matched on productive vocabulary—who were exposed to the same experimental words at the first and last sessions only. Results: The results showed that for children in the experimental group, extended practice with a novel set of high-practice words led to the rapid acquisition of a second set of low-practice words. Children in the control group did not show the same lexical advantage. Conclusions: The data suggest that learning some words primes the system to learn more words. Vocabulary development can thus be conceptualized as a continual process of fine-tuning the lexical system to enable increased accessibility to information. Implications for the treatment of children with word-finding difficulties are considered. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.