An Interactive Approach to Enhancing Early Word Learning

A wealth of research on child language has unearthed many novel strategies that parents and interventionists can utilise to enhance word learning prior to infants producing their first words. These developmentally-appropriate strategies are published in scientific journals, however, rendering them largely inaccessible to parents and non-research professionals. This volume presents research findings and practices in an accessible, user-friendly manner. A sizeable percentage of children entering first grade each year show vocabulary delays. However, best practices for enhancing vocabulary focus on children after they talk or exhibit delays. By addressing what it takes to learn words, this volume informs best practices for building vocabulary from the ground up to prevent delays. It enumerates multiple strategies that primary caregivers naturally exhibit during interaction, and strategies isolated from experimental studies. The book also highlights the word learning of bilingual versus monolingual children, and addresses cultural variations.