Word characteristics and vocabulary learning (Roettgen et al., 2024)

Purpose: One challenge to the design and delivery of effective vocabulary intervention is the selection of vocabulary targets. The purpose of this study was to examine the relation of word characteristics to vocabulary learning from explicit vocabulary intervention.Method: This study was a secondary analysis of data from two recent efficacy studies of an explicit vocabulary intervention delivered to preschool children (Story Friends). Taught vocabulary words were coded for concreteness, imageability, and shape using the perceptual accessibility continuum.Results: Multilevel modeling indicated that perceptual accessibility predicted vocabulary learning. Of the perceptual accessibility components, concreteness and imageability contributed significantly to the model, but shape did not. Higher vocabulary learning was observed for words rated more perceptually accessible.Conclusions: Preschool children’s vocabulary learning was predicted by perceptual accessibility characteristics of taught words. Findings contribute to the body of evidence to guide the selection and sequencing of vocabulary targets for effective vocabulary intervention.Supplemental Material S1. List of Story Friends words with perceptual accessibility scores and vocabulary knowledge scores.Roettgen, G., Peters-Sanders, L., Hadley, E. B., Goldstein, H., & Kelley, E. S. (2024). The influence of word characteristics on preschoolers’ vocabulary learning. Perspectives of the ASHA Special Interest Groups, 9(6), 1551–1561. https://doi.org/10.1044/2024_PERSP-24-00048