Word learning in typically-developing preschool children : effects of social and semantic cues during storybook reading

Abstract

Previous studies have separately reported positive effects of social cue in the form of pointing plus eye gaze and semantic cue via iconic gesture for shape on word learning in children. This study further compared how well preschool children at different ages acquired, generalized, and retained novel words presented in stories with the two cues. Twenty-three 2- to 5-year old children were taught three pairs of novel words in nine stories. Labeling of the novel objects was paired with pointing in conjunction with eye gaze, iconic gestures depicting the shapes of the objects, or no extra cues. Children’s comprehension and production performance was measured immediately after learning and about one week later. Results indicated that pointing with eye gaze gained better results than iconic shape gestures or labelling alone for short- and long-term comprehension of new words. Novel word production accuracy was similar across the three cue conditions, and was better a week later than immediately after learning. Younger and older children performed similarly. Overall, pointing plus eye gaze was a more effective cue for teaching new words in stories to children.