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Below are some summaries of a few of our recent studies.
The Right Thing at the Right Time
Axelsson, Churchley & Horst (2012)
Our light-up tray in action
We recently explored how ostensive naming--being really obvious about what a name is refering to--helps children learn words. For this study, we used a special "light-up tray" (see picture on the left). For some children, the target (the new object we tried to teach a name for) was illuminated below by a special light. For some children, the non-targets (the other objects) were covered to help convey that they weren't the correct items. For some children both the targets were highlighted and the non-targets covered. Finally, in a control group the adult simply pointed to the target.
Overall, children who saw the targets lit-up learned the words significantly better than the other children. This is an important finding because it demonstrates that young children don't just pick-up the meanings of words but need particular reinforcement. Covering the non-targets along with lighting-up the target did help children to learn the words as well. Ideally, to help children learn words adults should point out both the key item to focus on as well as indicate what not to focus on.
This research was funded by a grant from the ESRC. The journal article is part of a special research topic at Frontiers in Developmental Psychology.
Contextual Repetition Promotes Word Learning From Storybooks
Horst, Parsons & Bryan (2011)
Cover of one of our storybooks
Many parents have witnessed the phenomenon that children ask for the same story to be read again and again... and again and again. We recently asked if hearing the same story again and again helps children to learn words. Not surprisingly, the answer is yes. More suprisingly, however, is that when children heard the same stories repeatedly they learn the words a staggering 200% better than children who heard the same words the same number of times but by hearing different stories.
In this study, we visited children in their homes three times within one week. For children who heard the same stories, on each visit a story was read three times back-to-back (for example, a child might hear The Very Naughty Puppy three times in a row). For children who heard different stories, one each visit three different stories were read, but importantly, these had the same number of new words, which occured the same number of times.
Children who heard the same stories learned many more words than children who were read different stories even though everyone had heard the new words the exact same number of times. This suggests that children really do get a lot out of hearing the same stories again and again!
The journal article for this study is open access (anyone can download it). You can also watch a clip in which Jessica Horst talks about this kind of research with Jo Frost.