Word Learning in Children with Specific Language Impairment: Influence of Child and Word Characteristics

Children with specific language impairment (SLI) have significantly poorer word learning ability than their same-age peers. It is not clear exactly where in the process of learning a new word these children struggle, but literature from experimental studies suggests that children’s abilities in other areas and characteristics of the words themselves play a role. This study examined the influence of child characteristics (fast-mapping ability, phonological working memory, semantics, and language ability) and word characteristics (phonotactic probability, neighborhood density, and part of speech) on word learning outcomes in a clinical trial. Thirteen kindergarten children with SLI were taught vocabulary words through an interactive book reading treatment. Results showed that children who performed better on tasks of fast mapping and answering questions after listening to a short story generally learned more words following the treatment. Words from sparser phonological neighborhoods were generally learned by more children. Possible modifications to the treatment based on these findings are discussed