Department of Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, USA.
Department of Pediatrics, University of Miami, Coral Gables, USA.
Dev Sci. 2025 Jan;28(1):e13588. doi: 10.1111/desc.13588.
Although vocabulary size is thought to index children's language abilities, an increasing body of work suggests that regularities in children's vocabulary composition, particularly the proportion of shape-based nouns (e.g., cup), support language development. Here we examine initial vocabulary composition in children with hearing loss following cochlear implantation (n = 163) and age-matched children with normal hearing (n = 87). This comparison constitutes an experiment in nature for understanding how early vocabulary composition shapes subsequent language development in the context of the clinical provision of auditory experience. Children with higher initial proportions of shape-based nouns had larger vocabularies and scored higher on tests of receptive and expressive language abilities at 1, 2, and 3 years follow-up, than children whose vocabularies had lower proportions of shape-based nouns. These effects were strongest for cochlear implant users, especially 2-3 years postimplantation. The results suggest that knowing shape-based nouns facilitates language development and may ameliorate delayed language development trajectories.
虽然词汇量大小被认为是衡量儿童语言能力的指标，但越来越多的研究表明，儿童词汇构成的规律性，特别是基于形状的名词（例如“cup”）的比例，有助于语言发展。在这里，我们研究了接受耳蜗植入（n = 163）和年龄匹配的正常听力儿童（n = 87）的听力损失儿童的初始词汇构成。这种比较构成了一种自然实验，旨在了解在临床提供听觉体验的背景下，早期词汇构成如何塑造随后的语言发展。与词汇中基于形状的名词比例较低的儿童相比，初始基于形状的名词比例较高的儿童在 1、2 和 3 年的随访中词汇量更大，并且在接受性和表达性语言能力测试中得分更高。对于耳蜗植入使用者来说，这些影响在植入后 2-3 年尤为明显。研究结果表明，了解基于形状的名词有助于语言发展，并可能改善语言发展轨迹的延迟。
