Word learning in a special population
Do individuals with Williams syndrome obey lexical constraints
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20366703 |
|---|---|
| Authors | TASSOS STEVENS (University College London), Annette Karmiloff-Smith, Annette Karmiloff‐Smith (University College London) |
| Year | 1997 |
| Volume | 24 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 737-765 |
| Publication date | 1997-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Child Language (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0305-0009 • E-ISSN: 1469-7602 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0305000997003279 |
| PMID | 9519593 |
| OpenAlex | W2001507641 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 8 |
Williams syndrome (WS), a rare neurodevelopmental disorder, is of special interest to developmental psycholinguists because of its uneven linguistico-cognitive profile of abilities and deficits. One proficiency manifest in WS adolescents and adults is an unusually large vocabulary despite serious deficits in other domains. In this paper, rather than focus on vocabulary size, we explore the processes underlying vocabulary acquisition, i.e. how new words are learned. A WS group was compared to groups of normal MA-matched controls in the range 3–9 years in four different experiments testing for constraints on word learning. We show that in construing the meaning of new words, normal children at all ages display fast mapping and abide by the constraints tested: mutual exclusivity, whole object and taxonomic. By contrast, while the WS group showed fast mapping and the mutual exclusivity constraint, they did not abide by the whole object or taxonomic constraints. This suggests that measuring only the size of WS vocabulary can distort conclusions about the normalcy of WS language. Our study shows that despite equivalent behaviour (i.e. vocabulary test age), the processes underlying how vocabulary is acquired in WS follow a somewhat different path from that of normal children and that the atypically developing brain is not necessarily a window on normal development
Cognition · Cognitive psychology · Developmental psychology · Language acquisition · Language development · Linguistics · Population · Vocabulary · Vocabulary development · Williams syndrome · Psychology · Williams Syndrome Research
Asynchrony in the cognitive and lexical development of young children with Williams syndrome
A study of relative clauses in Williams syndrome
Young children's expectation of competence in word learning
Word learning in children with autism spectrum disorders
How Children Learn the Meanings of Words
Development itself is the key to understanding developmental disorders
Early Word Segmentation by Infants and Toddlers With Williams Syndrome
Word-Learning Abilities in Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing Preschoolers
| Unique citing works | 8 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,29 |
| Citation span | 1998 - 2009 (12) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |