• All the children provided significantly more definitions for the target words
describing artifacts than for the words describing animals in post test 1 and post test
3.
• Each group demonstrated the same pattern. Significant differences were found for the
Ostensive definition group during post test 1 and Lexical contrast group across
testing.
To what extent does the child’s prior lexical knowledge (Comprehension and Naming)
influence the provision of definitions'!
Baseline Comprehension vocabulary
• Children with high level baseline comprehension vocabulary provided more
definitions than children with low level baseline vocabulary across testing. The
differences were significant for post test 2. Separate analysis for each group
demonstrated the same pattern, however the differences were not significant.
Baseline Naming Vocabulary
• Children with high level of baseline naming vocabulary provided more definitions
than children with low level baseline naming vocabulary across testing. The
differences were found to be significant for post test 2 and post test 3. Separate
analysis for each group demonstrated the same pattern however, the differences were
not significant.
Analysis of the Definitions
• Children’s definitions focused mainly on the descriptive, semantic, functional and
contextual properties.
Descriptive properties’.
Is there a differential impact of the type of exposure to new lexical items that the children
receive to the provision of descriptive properties?
• No significant differences were found for post test 1, while significant differences
were found for post test 2 and 3.
• During post test 2, “descriptive” properties were used significantly more by the
Definition than the Ostensive definition and the Lexical contrast group. During post