Word Definition Skills in Spanish-Speaking Children with Language Impairment

Abstract

Recent research has shown that children's formal definition skills correlate with school achievement. However, performance on word definition tasks may also relate to children's previous educational and language experiences. Available data are based mostly on monolingual English-speaking children and are not appropriate to identify the needs of children from other language or cultural backgrounds. This study compared the word definition skills of Spanish-speaking children with and without language impairment using a qualitative analysis. The results revealed great individual differences in the use of formal definitions within groups and specific language needs in the children with language impairment. Rather than focusing solely on children's lexical knowledge, which may be sensitive to differences in cultural and educational experience, clinicians should focus on assessing the communicative aspects of the task.