Efficiency in understanding 1 Picking Up Speed in Understanding : Speech Processing Efficiency and Vocabulary Growth Across the Second Year

English-learning children (n=59) were observed longitudinally at 15, 18, 21, and 25 months in the “looking-while-listening” procedure as they looked at pictures while listening to speech naming one of the pictures. Analyses of the time course of eye movements revealed significant increases in the efficiency of children’s comprehension over this period. Parental-report data on productive vocabulary were gathered at 3-month intervals. Speed and accuracy in spoken word recognition at 25 months were correlated with numerous measures of lexical and grammatical development from 12 to 25 months. Analyses of nonlinear growth curves showed that children who were faster and more accurate in online comprehension at 25 months were those who had accelerated more rapidly in vocabulary growth across the second year. Efficiency in understanding

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