Word meaning types acquired before vs. after age 5: implications for education

TL;DR

The paper explores how children acquire different types of word meanings before and after age 5, and how this affects vocabulary development and educational strategies.

Contribution

The study introduces a classification of word meanings into nonverbal and verbally-based types, and shows how their acquisition changes with age.

Findings

Most word meanings known by age 5 are nonverbal.

By grade five, children have added many verbally-defined meanings, but nonverbal meanings still dominate.

Educational strategies should focus on nonverbal vocabularies for children under 6 and verbally-defined meanings afterward.

Abstract

This article concerns two types of word meanings: nonverbal meanings which appear to be associated with neurological representations and verbally-based meanings which appear to depend in part on other words to construct meanings. Using word use data from Hart and Risley’s study of children aged 19 to 36 months, and word meaning knowledge data from Biemiller and Slonim’s studies of children between aged 5 to 11, meanings were classified as nonverbal or verbally-based. Biemiller and Slonim used sampled word meanings reported known from grade levels 2 to 12 reported by Dale and O’Rourke in their Living Word Vocabulary. Virtually all meanings used at age 3 or known at age 5 (preschool) were classified nonverbal. By grade two, and even more by grade five, children had added many verbally-defined meanings, although by grade five the majority of the word meanings known were still nonverbal. Evidence for neurological meaning associates are cited. Implications for vocabulary support and instruction at various ages suggest that for children under 6, supporting larger nonverbal vocabularies while after age 6 should prioritize verbally-defined meanings.