Abstract
Purpose: To describe the word-learning problems characteristic of developmental language impairment (LI).
Method: College students with LI (n = 39) or normal language development (ND, n = 40) attempted to learn novel word forms. Training for half of the words was meaning-focused; training for the other half was form-focused. Form recognition and stem completion tasks administered immediately after training tapped encoding of the lexical configuration and a repetition of the stem completion task one week later tapped consolidation. A visual world paradigm tapped lexical engagement.
Result: At the immediate post-test, the LI group was poorer at recognition and completion of word forms than their ND peers, suggesting a deficit in encoding the lexical configuration. However, the gap between the LI and ND groups in stem completion did not grow over the week, suggesting intact consolidation. Form-focused training yielded better performance than meaning-focused training at immediate- and one week tests. For both groups, newly trained words slowed the recognition of familiar English words, revealing lexical engagement.
Conclusion: The encoding of word-form configurations is challenging for some, but not all, college students with LI. Training that encourages a focus on the form may be a useful part of vocabulary intervention for those affected.
Acknowledgements
We thank the participants for their generosity and Efthymia Kapnoula and Katherine Gordon for feedback on an earlier version of this manuscript. This work was supported by NIH-NIDCD [grant number DC011742].
Declaration of interest
The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.