The Dynamics of Word Learning in Children with Developmental Language Impairment

初级发育性语言障碍（LI）影响着美国300多万儿童，许多 他们在社会和学术上都处于不利地位，因为他们的词汇量小而浅。目前，小 关于LI患者的单词学习过程如何随着发展而变化，这 知识库中的关键差距阻碍了词汇干预的设计， 发展适宜。设计这种干预措施是长期目标。当前 目的：探讨语言障碍儿童的词汇学习在发展过程中的变化规律。的 中心假设是，不同年龄段的单词学习的挑战随着单词学习的不同而不同。 情境、要学的词的成分以及潜在认知能力的发展 机制等旨在检验这一假设的项目将LI儿童与同龄人进行了比较， 正常的语言发展，因为他们在一周的时间里学习和记住新单词， 从六岁开始的每四年。这种方法是创新的，因为它脱离了 通过纵向研究学习。该项目涉及两个具体目标：1）建立一个 与LI相关的单词学习的发展轨迹，决定了a）如何学习和 B）学习和发展如何随着学习情况而变化 要学习的单词的组成部分;和2）指定这背后的认知机制 发展轨迹预期的贡献是一个更加细致和全面的 了解与LI相关的单词学习挑战以及这些挑战如何变化 在一个关键时期，即正式学校教育的最初几年。这一贡献意义重大，因为它是 预计将推进和扩大对单词学习和 认知发展词汇干预目前还没有针对最关键的 由于无知，在LI患者的特定发展水平上， 什么是关键的，什么时候是关键的。通过解决这一问题，该项目将为以下方面提供新的可能性： 根据儿童的发展需要制定预防和治疗干预措施。

Primary developmental language impairment (LI) affects over 3 million children in the U.S., many of whom are disadvantaged socially and academically by small and shallow vocabularies. Currently, little is known about how the word learning processes of people with LI changes over development. This critical gap in the knowledge base prevents the design of vocabulary interventions that are developmentally appropriate. The design of such interventions is the long-term goal. The current objective is to discover how the word learning of children with LI changes over developmental time. The central hypothesis is that the challenge of word learning at different ages varies with the word-learning situation, the component of the word to be learned, and the development of underlying cognitive mechanisms. The project designed to test this hypothesis compares children with LI to age-mates with normal language development as they learn and retain new words over the course of one week during each of four years beginning at age six. This approach is innovative because it departs from the status quo by examining learning longitudinally. The project involves two specific aims: 1) to establish a developmental trajectory of word learning associated with LI that determines a) how learning and development vary with the learning situation and b) how learning and development vary with the component of the word to be learned; and 2) to specify the cognitive mechanisms underlying this developmental trajectory. The expected contribution is a more nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the word learning challenges associated with LI and how these challenges change during a crucial period, the first years of formal schooling. This contribution is significant because it is expected to advance and expand understanding of the dynamic interaction between word learning and cognitive development. Vocabulary interventions are not currently tailored to focus on the most critical aspects of the problem at the given developmental level of the client with LI because of ignorance about what is critical and when. By addressing this issue, this project will offer new possibilities for tailoring preventive and therapeutic interventions in light of the child's developmental needs.