Does language learning disability in school-age children affect semantic word learning when reading?

The study was undertaken to determine how position of informative context, rate of word presentation and part of speech impacted novel word learning during reading in children with language learning disability.

Children with language learning disability (LLD; n = 13), age-matched peers (n = 13) and vocabulary-matched peers (n = 13) read four narrative passages containing 10 nouns and 10 verbs. Informative context provided clues to word meanings and was either adjacent or non-adjacent to the target words. Target words occurred either twice (low rate) or 5-times (high rate). Following reading, word learning was assessed using dynamic assessment, including oral definitions, contextual clues and forced choices.

Overall, age-matched peers performed better than children with LLD and vocabulary-matched peers, who performed similarly. No effect was found for position of informative context; however, word learning improved with high rate of presentation for children with LLD. Nouns were easier to learn than verbs for all groups.

Results indicated that children with LLD show limitations gaining semantic knowledge of novel words during reading, which could negatively impact their overall rate of vocabulary acquisition.