AJSLP
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

American Journal of Speech-Language Pathology Vol.16 381-392 November 2007. doi:10.1044/1058-0360(2007/041)
© American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow CEUs available
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow My Folders
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Horton-Ikard, R.
Right arrow Articles by Ellis Weismer, S.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Horton-Ikard, R.
Right arrow Articles by Ellis Weismer, S.

Research

A Preliminary Examination of Vocabulary and Word Learning in African American Toddlers From Middle and Low Socioeconomic Status Homes

RaMonda Horton-Ikard
University of Tennessee—Knoxville

Susan Ellis Weismer
University of Wisconsin—Madison

Contact author: RaMonda Horton-Ikard, Department of Communication Disorders, Florida State University, 407 Regional Rehabilitation Center, Tallahassee, FL 32303. E-mail: rhorton2{at}fsu.edu.

Purpose: This study examined the effect of socioeconomic status (SES) on the early lexical performance of African American children.

Method: Thirty African American toddlers (30 to 40 months old) from low-SES (n = 15) and middle-SES (n = 15) backgrounds participated in the study. Their lexical-semantic performance was examined on 2 norm-referenced standardized tests of vocabulary, a measure of lexical diversity (number of different words) derived from language samples, and a fast mapping task that examined novel word learning.

Results: Toddlers from low-SES homes performed significantly poorer than those from middle-SES homes on standardized receptive and expressive vocabulary tests and on the number of different words used in spontaneous speech. No significant SES group differences were observed in their ability to learn novel word meanings on a fast mapping task.

Conclusion: The influence of socioeconomic background on African American children's lexical semantic tasks varies with the type of measure used.

Key Words: vocabulary, African American toddlers, fast mapping






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
All ASHA Journals AJA AJSLP JSLHR LSHSS
Copyright © 2007 by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.