Characteristics of Vocabulary Use in Narrative Tasks in Preschool Children: A Preliminary Study for AAC Application

Abstract

Objectives: Despite the continuous body of research on vocabulary in augmentative and alternative communication, it is difficult to find related studies on vocabulary use in young children. The purpose of this study was to investigate vocabulary use patterns in preschool children by collecting narrative data, and analyzing it by word units. Methods: The subjects were 53 normal children between the ages of 4 and 6 (26 boys and 27 girls). Subjects were asked to carry out three narrative production tasks (retelling a story, personal experience, and script). Produced utterances were analyzed for high frequency words according to task type and age group, percentage of core vocabulary in the total vocabulary, percentage of structure words and content words in the core vocabulary, and use and percentage of fringe vocabulary in total tasks. Results: The appearance of high frequency words differed according to task type and age group. Core vocabulary consisted of 72% of the total word production, representing a large proportion of the total vocabulary. The ratio of structure words to content words was 19: 81, showing that content words were more dominant, while the percentage of fringe vocabulary of the total vocabulary was much lower at 7.45%. Conclusion: Vocabulary use in children is affected by the type of task. This study was significant in that it collected narrative utterances to analyze the core vocabulary in preschool children.