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Size and composition of the lexicon in prematurely born very-low-birth-weight and full-term Finnish children at two years of age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2007

SUVI STOLT ,
ANU KLIPPI ,
KAISA LAUNONEN ,
PETRIINA MUNCK ,
LIISA LEHTONEN ,
HELENA LAPINLEIMU  and
LEENA HAATAJA
SUVI STOLT
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki and Turku University Central Hospital
ANU KLIPPI
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki
KAISA LAUNONEN
Affiliation:
University of Helsinki
PETRIINA MUNCK
Affiliation:
Turku University Central Hospital
LIISA LEHTONEN
Affiliation:
Turku University Central Hospital
HELENA LAPINLEIMU
Affiliation:
Turku University Central Hospital
LEENA HAATAJA
Affiliation:
Turku University Central Hospital
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Abstract

This paper focuses on the aspects of the lexicon in 66 prematurely born very-low-birth-weight and 87 full-term Finnish children at 2;0, studied using the Finnish version of the MacArthur Communicative Developmental Inventory. The groups did not differ in vocabulary size. Furthermore, the female advantage in vocabulary size was not seen in preterm children. The overall shapes of the trajectories for the main lexical categories as a function of vocabulary size were highly similar in both groups and followed those described in the literature. However, there were significant differences in the percentage of nouns and grammatical function words between the two groups. The results suggest that prematurity ‘cuts off’ the female advantage in vocabulary development. Furthermore, it also seems that there are differences between prematurely born and full-term children in the composition of the lexicon at 2;0. The findings support the universal sequence in the development of lexical categories.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 34 , Issue 2 , May 2007 , pp. 283 - 310
Copyright
2007 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This study was supported by grants from the Emil Aaltonen Foundation, the Friends of Paediatric Clinics in University Hospitals in Finland Fund and the Neonatal Research in Southwestern Finland Fund.