Learning word meanings during reading by children with language learning disability and typically-developing peers

Abstract

This study investigated whether children with language learning disability (LLD) differed from typically-developing peers in their ability to learn meanings of novel words presented during reading. Fifteen 9–11-year-old children with LLD and 15 typically-developing peers read four passages containing 20 nonsense words. Word learning was assessed through oral definition and multiple-choice tasks. Variables were position of informative context, number of exposures, part of speech, and contextual clues. The LLD group scored lower than same-aged peers on oral definition (p < .001) and multiple-choice (p < .001) tasks. For both groups, there was no effect for position of informative context (p = .867) or number of exposures (p = .223). All children benefitted from contextual clues. The findings suggested difficulty inferring and recalling word meanings during reading and pointed to the need for vocabulary intervention in the upper elementary years for children with LLD.

Keywords:

• language disorders
• word learning
• reading
• school-age children

Notes

1. To more broadly capture the learning problems that children with language impairment experience in the later elementary years and to more closely align with the educational labels used in the schools, the term language learning disability (LLD) will be used to describe the target population.