Conceptual development in preschool-aged children
Background: Concepts aid us in understanding the world around us, make acquiring new vocabulary and knowledge easier, and help us in organising our mental lexicons. How children organise concepts changes as they develop, from relying on perception to more abstract categorisation, such as connections based on thematic or taxonomic relations. This deeper level of word knowledge has received less attention than other aspects of vocabulary.
Aim: To examine whether a continuum of conceptual knowledge development existed in the responses of 4-year-old children to a vocabulary depth task.
Method/approach: Twenty-five 4-year-old children completed a task where they were asked to describe what was similar/dissimilar between two pictures. Data were collected at three time points, spaced six months apart. A framework was developed to systematically and qualitatively code children’s responses and to identify response patterns (progress, regression, stable, unstable). Children’s global language skills were assessed using a standardised assessment. Ethical approval was from Visindasiðanefnd.
Results/findings: There was an increase in both thematic and taxonomic responses over time, indicating a change towards more advanced response types. Thematic responses increased from 5% to 14% and taxonomic responses increased from 1% to 21%. The largest proportion of responses remained stable (51%), consisting mainly of less advanced response types, but 32% of children showed progression. Progression was correlated with higher standardised language scores.
Conclusion: Understanding how conceptual knowledge develops is important for more accurately identifying when, if, and how certain children struggle and for proposing interventions that may support children’s transition from using less to more advanced strategies.
Implications for children and families: You will understand why it is important to know words well, not just to know many words and how words are stored and organised in your brain.
Implications for practitioners: You will be able to understand theories of category knowledge development and how this develops as children’s vocabulary grows.
Funding: Menntarannsóknasjóður [219261-051].
Keywords: children, preschool, language, vocabulary, concepts
This presentation relates to the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goals: