Dynamic assessment and word learning

Past studies indicate that standardized vocabulary tests may be insensitive to language impairments and may be culturally biased. Dynamic assessment may be used as an alternative or supplementary approach to measure a child’s ability to learn words. Factors that may need to be manipulated in dynamic assessment include phonotactic probability (i.e., frequency of sound sequences) and neighborhood density (phonological similarity) because past research suggests that children with typical development learn common-dense sound sequences more readily than rare-sparse. Incorporating these factors into dynamic assessment is illustrated. Biographical information Junko Maekawa is a doctoral student interested in cross-linguistic word learning. Holly L. Storkel is an associate professor interested in interactions between sound and word learning.