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Emotion word comprehension in children aged 4–7 years

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 October 2019

Christelle Declercq Open the ORCID record for Christelle Declercq [Opens in a new window] ,
Pauline Marlé  and
Régis Pochon
Christelle Declercq*
Affiliation:
Laboratoire C2S (Cognition, Santé, Société) EA6291, Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France
Pauline Marlé
Affiliation:
Laboratoire C2S (Cognition, Santé, Société) EA6291, Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France
Régis Pochon
Affiliation:
Laboratoire C2S (Cognition, Santé, Société) EA6291, Université de Reims Champagne-Ardenne, Reims, France
*
Author for correspondence: Christelle Declercq, Email: [email protected]
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Abstract

Despite its importance for furthering social relationships, the development of the emotional lexicon has seldom been studied. Recent research suggests that during childhood, emotion words are acquired less rapidly than concrete words, but more rapidly than abstract words. The present study directly compared the comprehension of emotion words with the comprehension of concrete and abstract words in children aged 4–7 years. Children were shown 48 sets of four pictures and for each set had to point to the picture corresponding to a word that had just been pronounced. Words referred to concrete (16), abstract (16), or emotional (16) concepts. Results showed that concrete words were better understood than either emotion or abstract words, and emotion words were better understood than abstract ones. This finding emphasises the importance of the emotional lexicon in lexical development, and suggests that emotion word comprehension should be enhanced through regular training. This would increase children’s emotional knowledge, improve their communication skills, and promote their socialisation.

Keywords

emotional knowledgemeaningabstract wordsconcrete wordsdevelopment
Type
Articles
Information
The Educational and Developmental Psychologist , Volume 36 , Issue 2 , December 2019 , pp. 82 - 87
Copyright
© Australian Psychological Society Ltd 2019 

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Footnotes

†

The online version of this article has been updated since original publication. A notice detailing the changes has also been published.

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