The role of vision in the acquisition of words: Vocabulary development in blind toddlers.
blindness
language development
sensory experience
vocabulary
Journal
Developmental science
ISSN: 1467-7687
Titre abrégé: Dev Sci
Pays: England
ID NLM: 9814574
Informations de publication
Date de publication:
16 Jan 2024
16 Jan 2024
Historique:
revised:
07
12
2023
received:
19
04
2023
accepted:
26
12
2023
medline:
17
1
2024
pubmed:
17
1
2024
entrez:
17
1
2024
Statut:
aheadofprint
Résumé
What is vision's role in driving early word production? To answer this, we assessed parent-report vocabulary questionnaires administered to congenitally blind children (N = 40, Mean age = 24 months [R: 7-57 months]) and compared the size and contents of their productive vocabulary to those of a large normative sample of sighted children (N = 6574). We found that on average, blind children showed a roughly half-year vocabulary delay relative to sighted children, amid considerable variability. However, the content of blind and sighted children's vocabulary was statistically indistinguishable in word length, part of speech, semantic category, concreteness, interactiveness, and perceptual modality. At a finer-grained level, we also found that words' perceptual properties intersect with children's perceptual abilities. Our findings suggest that while an absence of visual input may initially make vocabulary development more difficult, the content of the early productive vocabulary is largely resilient to differences in perceptual access. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS: Infants and toddlers born blind (with no other diagnoses) show a 7.5 month productive vocabulary delay on average, with wide variability. Across the studied age range (7-57 months), vocabulary delays widened with age. Blind and sighted children's early vocabularies contain similar distributions of word lengths, parts of speech, semantic categories, and perceptual modalities. Blind children (but not sighted children) were more likely to say visual words which could also be experienced through other senses.
Types de publication
Journal Article
Langues
eng
Sous-ensembles de citation
IM
Pagination
e13475Subventions
Organisme : National Science Foundation
ID : BCS-1844710
Informations de copyright
© 2024 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
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