Toddlers better retain novel object-label mappings from taxonomic categories they have more knowledge of. Separately, words for concepts with more perceptual features are learned earlier than words for concepts with fewer perceptual features. Because these factors have only been examined separately, it is unclear whether the effects of taxonomic…

The last decade has seen an exponential rise in children's digital media use, as well as growing evidence that it is associated with changes in children's vocabulary. However, while high rates of low-quality digital media have been associated with lower "amounts" of words a child says, little work has examined whether digital media…

Connecting explicit vocabulary study to movement, talk, and shared decision-making offers a potent yet often untapped route to deeper reading comprehension in the middle elementary years. This article describes a concise routine--semantic gradients enacted by visibly random triads on vertical non-permanent surfaces--that fuses embodied learning…

Sound symbolism refers to associations between language sounds and certain perceptual or semantic properties. One well-studied example is the maluma/takete effect, in which individuals tend to associate round-sounding nonwords like maluma with round shapes, and spiky-sounding nonwords like takete with spiky shapes. This phenomenon suggests that…