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Attention and word learning in toddlers who are late talkers

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2015

MICHELLE MACROY-HIGGINS  and
ELIZABETH A. MONTEMARANO
MICHELLE MACROY-HIGGINS*
Affiliation:
Hunter College, City University of New York
ELIZABETH A. MONTEMARANO
Affiliation:
New York City Department of Education
*
[*]Address for correspondence: Michelle MacRoy-Higgins, Hunter College, CUNY, Department of Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology, 425 East 25th Street, New York, NY 10010. tel: 212-481-4358; fax: 212-481-4458; e-mail: mmacroy@hunter.cuny.edu
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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine attention allocation in toddlers who were late talkers and toddlers with typical language development while they were engaged in a word-learning task in order to determine if differences exist. Two-year-olds who were late talkers (11) and typically developing toddlers (11) were taught twelve novel pseudo-words for unfamiliar objects over ten training sessions. The toddlers' attention allocation during the word-learning sessions was measured as well as their comprehension of the newly learned words. Late talkers showed reduced attention allocation to objects during word-training sessions, and also comprehended fewer of the novel words than toddlers with typical language development. Attention allocation was found to be a stronger predictor of word learning as compared to cognition and auditory comprehension. Reduced attention allocation may contribute to the early lexical delay characteristic in late talkers.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 43 , Issue 5 , September 2016 , pp. 1020 - 1037
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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