Language and executive function skills as predictors of semantic fluency performance in pre-school children

Abstract

Purpose: To explore how language and executive function skills of pre-school-aged children contribute to semantic fluency (a form of verbal fluency) performance. This study investigated effect of age and contribution of vocabulary and executive function on qualitative aspects of the semantic fluency task.

Method: Forty typically developing Australian-English-speaking pre-school children, aged 4;0–5;11 (mean age = 55.5 months, SD = 5.21) participated. Eight assessment tasks were presented in random order examining semantic fluency, vocabulary knowledge and executive function. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses determined the extent to which measures of executive function and vocabulary accounted for fluency (number of words correctly produced) and qualitative aspects of the semantic fluency task (number of clusters, number of clustered words, number of switches).

Result: While executive function and vocabulary were positively correlated with fluency and all qualitative measures of semantic fluency performance, they were not significant predictors of any aspect of task performance. Age and vocabulary were the only significant predictors of fluency, number of words clustered, and number of switches. Performance on these tasks was strongly related to vocabulary and automated retrieval processes.

Conclusion: Pre-school children do not predominantly rely on executive function during semantic fluency. The influence that vocabulary has on semantic fluency task performance outweighs that accounted for by age.

Keywords:

• child
• pre-school
• executive function
• vocabulary
• semantic fluency

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the children and parents who participated in this study, and the schools and staff for their assistance and co-operation.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no declarations of interest.