How children learn the meaning of words in an information-rich environment: A micro-developmental study
Our goal was to determine how much support children need to integrate a new word to their oral vocabulary. Six sessions were used to explain the meaning of 24 words to kindergarteners from a low-income neighborhood. On each occasion, words were presented with a brief definition and an illustration of their meaning. Findings indicate that children did not learn two thirds of the words and when they did integrate a word into their vocabulary it took them an average of 2.4 sessions. We interpret our findings as suggesting that learning a word is abstract and thus demanding for children.