Vocabulary development in Italian children: A longitudinal evaluation of quantitative and qualitative aspects (original) (raw)
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Nouns and verbs in the vocabulary acquisition of Italian children
Journal of Child Language, 2007
The vocabulary development of 24 Italian children aged between 16 and 18 months at the beginning of the study has been longitudinally monitored on a monthly basis using the Italian version of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory drawn up by their mothers.
First language, 2007
This paper compares the proportions of different word classes present in 30 Italian children at two specific stages of vocabulary development (200 and 500 words). The Italian version of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory and spontaneous speech samples produced during an observation session were both used to examine the extent to which these children produce quantitatively different vocabulary compositions. Both methods revealed a greater presence of nouns than other word classes in the sample studied, although significant differences were found in the noun/other word class proportions.
Behavior Research Methods, 2004
The CFVlexvar.xls database includes imageability, frequency, and grammatical properties of the first words acquired by Italian children. For each of 519 words that are known by children 18–30 months of age (taken from Caselli & Casadio’s, 1995, Italian version of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory), new values of imageability are provided and values for age of acquisition, child written frequency, and adult written and spoken frequency are included. In this article, correlations among the variables are discussed and the words are grouped into grammatical categories. The results show that words acquired early have imageable referents, are frequently used in the texts read and written by elementary school children, and are frequent in adult written and spoken language. Nouns are acquired earlier and are more imageable than both verbs and adjectives. The composition in grammatical categories of the child’s first vocabulary reflects the composition of adult vocabulary. The full set of these norms can be downloaded fromwww.psychonomic.org/archive/.
Early relations between lexical and grammatical development in very immature Italian preterms
Journal of Child Language, 2006
This study aimed to investigate early lexical and grammatical development and their relations in a sample of very immature healthy preterms, in order to assess whether their linguistic development [*] Perrone for their help with the medical examination; the children and parents for their participation in the research. We would also like to thank Maria Cristina Caselli and Antonella Devescovi for their precious suggestions concerning the questionnaire and the test used in the research and Roberto Bolzani for statistical advice. Thanks also to the reviewers for their perceptive comments. Finally, we are grateful to Annette Karmiloff-Smith for her careful comments and helpful suggestions.
A comparison of the transition from first words to grammar in English and Italian
Journal of Child Language, 1999
Cross-linguistic similarities and differences in early lexical and grammatical development are reported for English-speaking children and Italian-speaking children between ; and ; . Parents completed the English or Italian versions of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory : Words and Sentences, a parent report instrument that provides information about vocabulary size, vocabulary composition and grammatical complexity across this age range. The onset and subsequent growth of nouns, predicates, function words and social terms proved to be quite similar in both languages. No support was found for the prediction that verbs would emerge earlier in Italian, although Italians did produce a higher proportion of social terms, and there were small but intriguing differences in the shape of the growth curve for grammatical function words. A strikingly similar nonlinear relationship between grammatical complexity and vocabulary size was observed in both languages, and examination of the order in which function words are acquired also yielded more similarities than differences. However, a comparison of the longest sentences reported for a subset of children demonstrates large cross-linguistic differences in the
Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics
This study analysed the early linguistic development of Italian pre-term children. Samples of spontaneous pre-linguistic and verbal production were recorded at 12 and 18 months of age from two groups of children: 24 pre-term children and 15 full-term children. The Italian version of the MacArthur-Bates Questionnaire was administered at 24 months of age. Comparisons between these two groups reveal differences in many aspects of phonetic and phonological development, such as consonantal inventory at 12 and 18 months of age and syllabic babbling complexity at 18 months of age. Results evidenced that birth weight was related with phonological skills exhibited at 18 months of age, and these skills in turn are related with vocabulary size at 24 months of age. Data are discussed within a theoretical framework that hypothesizes that early phonetic abilities have long-lasting effects on the process of language acquisition.
First language, 2017
This cross-linguistic study investigated whether the native language has any influence on lexical composition among Italian (N = 125) and Finnish (N = 116) very preterm (born at <32 gestational weeks) children at 24 months (controls: 125 Italian and 146 Finnish full-term children). The investigation also covered the effect of maternal education (ME) on lexical composition. The Italian/Finnish MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory was used for gathering the data. Although the lexicons of the preterm children were smaller than those of the controls, the native language had no major effect on their lexical composition. The ME had a significant effect on preterm children's lexical composition, especially in the Finnish children. The findings indicate that lexical composition is not strongly affected by preterm birth. They also imply that lexical composition is a robust phenomenon that is connected to lexicon size and is not language-specific when analysed in broad terms, although some language-specific features were also detected.
A statistical estimate of infant and toddler vocabulary size from CDI analysis
Developmental Science, 2011
For the last 20 years, developmental psychologists have measured the variability in lexical development of infants and toddlers using the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDIs) -the most widely used parental report forms for assessing language and communication skills in infants and toddlers. We show that CDI reports can serve as a basis for estimating infants' and toddlers' total vocabulary sizes, beyond serving as a tool for assessing their language development relative to other infants and toddlers. We investigate the link between estimated total vocabulary size and raw CDI scores from a mathematical perspective, using both single developmental trajectories and population data. The method capitalizes on robust regularities, such as the overlap of individual vocabularies observed across infants and toddlers, and takes into account both shared knowledge and idiosyncratic knowledge. This statistical approach enables researchers to approximate the total vocabulary size of an infant or a toddler, based on her raw MacArthur-Bates CDI score. Using the model, we propose new normative data for productive and receptive vocabulary in early childhood, as well as a tabulation that relates individual CDI measures to realistic lexical estimates. The correction required to estimate total vocabulary is non-linear, with a far greater impact at older ages and higher CDI scores. Therefore, we suggest that correlations of developmental indices to language skills should be made to vocabulary size as estimated by the model rather than to raw CDI scores.
International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health
In this study, we investigated the lexical ability in L1 and L2 of 60 immigrant children who were 37 to 62 months old and exposed to minority languages (L1) and Italian (L2). Using the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories, we measured children’s vocabulary production in L1 and L2. From interviews, we collected data on quantitative language exposure (parental input, child output, length of exposure to L2 at preschool, and parental oral fluency) and qualitative home-language exposure (HLE) practices (active, play, and passive) in L1 and L2. We conducted stepwise regression analyses to explore which factors predicted children’s vocabulary production in L1 and L2. The child’s chronological age and parental education were not predictors of vocabulary production. L2 parental input, L1 child output, and L1 HLE-active practices explained 42% of the variance in children’s L1 vocabulary production. L2 child output and L2 HLE-active practices explained 47% of the variance in c...