Purpose: Shape bias is a lexical principle that suggests shape is the primary feature by which concrete noun labels apply to other objects. It helps children generalize the labels of newly encountered words to other referents. Shape bias typically develops around two years of age and has been linked with increases in expressive vocabulary. Smith et al. [1], for example, found significant increases in 17-month-olds’ noun vocabularies following an intervention that taught shape bias. Methods: The present investigation, a non-randomized pilot study, applied an eight-week shape bias-based intervention to Late Talkers who were between the ages of 23 and 34 months. The eight participants were exposed to novel objects, associated nonsense spoken labels, and objects that did and did not match their shape. Pre- and post-treatment expressive vocabularies were measured using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory [2]. Results: The participants increased their expressive vocabularies by 24 to 119 words, adding more new nouns than other word types. Conclusions: These results, along with lessons learned about implementing the treatment, support larger-scale research on teaching shape bias to positively influence the expressive vocabularies of Late Talkers.
Purpose: Shape bias is a lexical principle that suggests shape is the primary feature by which concrete noun labels apply to other objects. It helps children generalize the labels of newly encountered words to other referents. Shape bias typically develops around two years of age and has been linked with increases in expressive vocabulary. Smith et al. [1], for example, found significant increases in 17-month-olds’ noun vocabularies following an intervention that taught shape bias. Methods: The present investigation, a non-randomized pilot study, applied an eight-week shape bias-based intervention to Late Talkers who were between the ages of 23 and 34 months. The eight participants were exposed to novel objects, associated nonsense spoken labels, and objects that did and did not match their shape. Pre- and post-treatment expressive vocabularies were measured using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory [2]. Results: The participants increased their expressive vocabularies by 24 to 119 words, adding more new nouns than other word types. Conclusions: These results, along with lessons learned about implementing the treatment, support larger-scale research on teaching shape bias to positively influence the expressive vocabularies of Late Talkers.
INTRODUCTION METHODS RESULTS DISCUSSION
