What is it about?

Sometime before their second birthday, many children show a vocabulary spurt, a developmental pattern where they transition from learning words slowly to learning new words more quickly. What drives the vocabulary spurt? Some theories suggest that cognitive changes lead to the vocabulary spurt, while others posit that the accumulation of language experience over time results in a spurt-like pattern. Testing these theories is a challenge, as children tend to undergo cognitive development and accumulate experience with language simultaneously. By studying monolingual and bilingual infants we could disentangle these two possible processes, as bilinguals often have different amounts of exposure to each of their languages while cognitive development is held constant. We found that an infant’s exposure to a language has an impact on if, when, and how they show a vocabulary spurt. While most infants (76%) showed a spurt in at least one vocabulary type, bilinguals were less likely to show a spurt in their non-dominant than in their dominant language. Amongst those who showed a spurt, it happened earlier and was bigger for infants with higher exposure to a language. When combining their vocabulary in both languages, the vocabulary spurt happened earlier and was bigger for children with a less balanced exposure, that is, those who hear more of one language and less of the other. Overall, these results indicate that accumulation of experience better explains the vocabulary spurt than cognitive changes.

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Why is it important?

The vocabulary spurt is sometimes considered a sign of typical language development, but it has been studied mostly in monolingual infants. Studying bilingual infants allowed us to better understand when and how these children show a spurt and the mechanisms behind it. These findings show that children’s language background can, in part, explain why different children learn words at different speeds. One implication is that bilingual children may show different patterns of vocabulary learning in each of their languages. Our results can help families raising bilingual children know what to expect of their vocabulary development, as well as early language professionals better assess language milestones and potential language delays.

Perspectives

Having worked with bilingual children in a clinical setting in the past made me realize the lack of research there still is regarding bilingual language development and how some decisions are still based on monolingual norms. I hope that my work and that of others doing research in the field leads to more resources to inform families and language professionals working with children learning two or more languages.

Miranda Gómez Díaz
Concordia University

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This page is a summary of: Testing theories of the vocabulary spurt with monolingual and bilingual infants., Developmental Psychology, July 2024, American Psychological Association (APA),
DOI: 10.1037/dev0001777.
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