Disambiguation and mapping of new word meanings by individuals with intellectual/ developmental disabilities

Wilkinson and Green (1998) reported that differences in the procedure by which new words were introduced to learners with cognitive impairments significantly affected their accuracy in later tests of receptive understanding of word meanings. However, a limited sample and no control group rendered the data preliminary. Here, I replicated and extended the research. First, a control group of preschool children, matched on receptive vocabulary age, was compared to individuals with intellectual disability of unspecified origin. Second, performance was also evaluated in three matched groups of varying etiology: unspecified, Down syndrome, and autism spectrum disorders. Performance on receptive word matching differed between preschool children and their matched experimental groups as well as among matched etiological groups.