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The Comprehension Boost in Early Word Learning: Older Infants Are Better Learners.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Bergelson, E
Published in: Child development perspectives
September 2020

Recent research has revealed that infants begin understanding words at around 6 months. After that, infants' comprehension vocabulary increases gradually in a linear way over 8-18 months, according to data from parental checklists. In contrast, infants' word comprehension improves robustly, qualitatively, and in a nonlinear way just after their first birthday, according to data from studies on spoken word comprehension. In this review, I integrate observational and experimental data to explain these divergent results. I argue that infants' comprehension boost is not well-explained by changes in their language input for common words, but rather by proposing that they learn to take better advantage of relatively stable input data. Next, I propose potentially complementary theoretical accounts of what makes older infants better learners. Finally, I suggest how the research community can expand our empirical base in this understudied area, and why doing so will inform our knowledge about child development.

Duke Scholars

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Published In

Child development perspectives

DOI

EISSN

1750-8606

ISSN

1750-8592

Publication Date

September 2020

Volume

14

Issue

3

Start / End Page

142 / 149

Related Subject Headings

  • Developmental & Child Psychology
  • 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology
  • 5203 Clinical and health psychology
  • 5201 Applied and developmental psychology
  • 1701 Psychology
 

Citation

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Bergelson, E. (2020). The Comprehension Boost in Early Word Learning: Older Infants Are Better Learners. Child Development Perspectives, 14(3), 142–149. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12373
Bergelson, Elika. “The Comprehension Boost in Early Word Learning: Older Infants Are Better Learners.Child Development Perspectives 14, no. 3 (September 2020): 142–49. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdep.12373.
Bergelson E. The Comprehension Boost in Early Word Learning: Older Infants Are Better Learners. Child development perspectives. 2020 Sep;14(3):142–9.
Bergelson, Elika. “The Comprehension Boost in Early Word Learning: Older Infants Are Better Learners.Child Development Perspectives, vol. 14, no. 3, Sept. 2020, pp. 142–49. Epmc, doi:10.1111/cdep.12373.
Bergelson E. The Comprehension Boost in Early Word Learning: Older Infants Are Better Learners. Child development perspectives. 2020 Sep;14(3):142–149.
Journal cover image

Published In

Child development perspectives

DOI

EISSN

1750-8606

ISSN

1750-8592

Publication Date

September 2020

Volume

14

Issue

3

Start / End Page

142 / 149

Related Subject Headings

  • Developmental & Child Psychology
  • 5204 Cognitive and computational psychology
  • 5203 Clinical and health psychology
  • 5201 Applied and developmental psychology
  • 1701 Psychology