Vocabulary Intervention for Late Talkers

Plain-language summary

Most studies regarding word learning have focused on understanding when and how infants learn words. At 24 months, typically developing infants know between 200 and 300 words and add new words to their vocabularies at a rapid rate. It is also during the first years of life that some principles that promote vocabulary learning are developed. The shape bias, which is a tendency to infer that objects that share the same shape will also share the same name, is the one that has been studied the most. At 24 months, typically developing infants use this principle as a strategy to learn novel words. In contrast, Late Talkers (children with a language delay in the absence of a physiological, cognitive or genetic disorder that may account for this delay) do not exhibit this preference. It has been found that teaching typically developing infants a shape bias prior to the end of the second year of life can boosts their word learning. Despite this, the possibility of teaching Late Talkers this principle and its effect on their vocabulary and language development has not been explored. Over a series of 9 weekly sessions, Late Talkers (diagnosed by Language Therapists from the Birmingham Community Healthcare National Health Services Foundation Trust, United Kingdom) will be introduced to one of two possible interventions: a shape bias intervention and a more conventional intervention called "specific word intervention". Both interventions will be compared after 9 weeks. One year later, a follow up study will be conducted to assess the long-term effects each intervention has in word learning. Participants will be referred by a Speech and Language Therapists from the Birmingham Community Healthcare National Health Services Foundation Trust, United Kingdom, and all assessments and interventions will take place at the Infant and Child Lab at the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom.

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