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Published on: February 8, 2019
Factors that influence vocabulary development in two-year-old children
Stephanie F Stokes1, Thomas Klee
1Newcastle University, Newcastle, UK. s.stokes@newcastle.ac.uk
Background:
This research explored the relative impact of demographic, cognitive, behavioural, and psycholinguistic factors on vocabulary development in two-year-old children.
Methods:
Two hundred and thirty-two children (24-30 months) were tested on expressive and receptive vocabulary, cognitive development, word learning and working memory skills. Parents completed a British adaptation (Klee & Harrison, 2001) of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI; Fenson et al., 1993), a demographic questionnaire and a questionnaire regarding the child's social-emotional behaviour.
Results:
Several demographic, child and processing variables were significantly correlated with CDI (vocabulary) scores, but the only significant unique predictors of CDI scores were nonword repetition (NWR; R(2) change = .36), sex (R(2) change = .05) and age (R(2) change = .04). Scores were only included when a child completed the entire NWR test (77% of toddlers).
Conclusions:
The NWR task used in this experiment maximised participation in this group of toddlers, and was a strong predictor of vocabulary ability. Longitudinal research is warranted to explore the independent and reciprocal growth in working memory and language skills in children.
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