Making Object Shape Explicit for Toddlers With Late Language Emergence.

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Linguistics
• Speech-Language Pathology

Background:

• Toddlers with late language emergence struggle with object vocabulary acquisition, impacting overall language growth.
• Early object word learning is crucial for subsequent language development.
• Difficulty in defining object shape hinders early word learning.

Purpose of the Study:

• To test a novel intervention scaffold highlighting object shape during word teaching for toddlers with late language emergence.
• To investigate if emphasizing shape aids in establishing early object word learning.
• To compare the effectiveness of shape gestures versus indicator gestures in word learning.

Main Methods:

• A single-subject experimental design was used with four toddlers exhibiting late language emergence.
• Two interventions were compared: co-speech shape gestures and co-speech indicator gestures.
• Naming of taught objects and novel exemplars was tracked, along with phoneme production in names.

Main Results:

• Participants demonstrated superior word learning with shape gestures, including extending names to novel exemplars, naming more types, and naming more tokens.
• The advantage of shape gestures over indicator gestures was statistically confirmed.
• Shape gestures led to semantic enrichment and facilitated better phonological binding of word representations.

Conclusions:

• Co-speech shape gestures offer a promising semantic approach to improve object word learning in toddlers with late language emergence.
• This method facilitates both semantic enrichment and phonological binding, crucial for early language development.
• Future research should explore parent-implemented interventions for enhanced external validity.