The Effects of Semantic and Phonological Cueing on Vocabulary Acquisition in Language Impaired Children

The present study compared the effectiveness of three types of vocabulary instruction in fifteen communication impaired children ranging from 6;8 to 11;7 with a mean age of 8;9. Subjects were administered word learning tasks evaluating the effect of phonological, semantic, or combined semantic + phonological cueing on the expressive and receptive vocabulary acquisition of nine novel vocabulary words. Three words were taught with direct instruction in each condition for a total of two times followed by both comprehension and production probes. Delayed retention probes were administered two weeks following the final word learning session. Results of two repeated measures 2x3x3 mixed model factorial analyses of variance did not reveal a significant main effect for the methods of training, group, or repetition when evaluating both production and comprehension means. A paired samples T test revealed children produced and retained more words in the semantic only condition versus the semantic + phonological word learning condition. These findings suggest that language impaired children benefit from semantic only cues provided during novel word learning tasks.