For very young children, more abstract vocabulary terms such as afloat, haste, mellow, noticeable, outward and skill are relatively more difficult, while more concrete terms such as dungeon, envelope, eyelash, nerve, plumbing, pork and snip are learned earlier.¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · associational r1 · q2
Currency · newest study 1921 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? The larger changes in word-difficulty order appear due to abstract terms being relatively more difficult at these early ages. → Cobb 1921 q2 i? More concrete terms are learned earlier and are more likely to be known by young children relative to an older group with an equally small vocabulary. → Cobb 1921 (2)

Evidence¶

Cobb 1921¶

Cobb, Margaret V. (1921). Tentative Order of Difficulty of the Terman Vocabulary with Very Young Children. The Journal of Educational Psychology. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Educational_Psychology

q2 · i? · associational · r1

Authors' interpretation of the tabulated per-word credit data from kindergarten and Grade I examinations: "certain more abstract terms, such as afloat, haste, mellow, noticeable, outward and skill, are relatively more difficult at these early ages."

"The larger changes in order seem to be due to the fact that certain more abstract terms, such as afloat, haste, mellow, noticeable, outward and skill, are relatively more difficult at these early ages"

Cobb 1921 (2)¶

Cobb, Margaret V. (1921). Tentative Order of Difficulty of the Terman Vocabulary with Very Young Children. The Journal of Educational Psychology. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Journal_of_Educational_Psychology

q2 · i? · associational · r1

Same tabulated per-word credit data, same interpretation passage: the concrete terms named "are learned earlier and are (relative to an older group having an equally small vocabulary) more likely to be known."

"and that some of the more concrete terms, such as dungeon, envelope, eyelash, nerve, plumbing, pork and snip, are learned earlier and are (relative to an older group having an equally small vocabulary) more likely to be known."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• The Terman (Stanford Revision) vocabulary test words show an order of difficulty for kindergarten and Grade I children that is noticeably different from the order indicated on the test blank. — related
• Picture and gesture enrichment benefit children's learning of both concrete and abstract L2 words — related
• Both gesture and picture enrichment enhanced children's test performance compared with non-enriched learning, with benefits persisting up to 6 months for concrete and abstract words — related
• The first four Terman vocabulary words appear in the same order for the kindergarten and IB subgroup as for the IA children, and the first 13 words for the two groups are the same words though in different order. — related
• With the original word order, several Terman vocabulary words were unknown to all examined kindergarten and Grade I children and were needlessly asked. — related