novel word learning tasks

[Len J. Abbeduto]

Hello all:

I was hoping for some guidance from colleagues who have used novel word 
learning tasks with young children (e.g., tasks used by Baldwin, Tomasello, 
and others).  I would like to administer a battery of several such tasks to 
children who are in the developmental range of roughly a 2- to 5-year-old. 
This means that I will essentially be asking these children to learn 
multiple novel words over the course of 1 or 2 testing sessions. (Of 
course, I also will be testing their mastery along the way.)

So, my question: How many novel words can I introduce before children 
become overwhelmed and confused so that their performance deteriorates 
relative to tasks in which they are exposed to only one or two words? I 
would welcome any citations to published work or even people's anecdotal 
experiences.

Thank you in advance.

best,

Len Abbeduto




Leonard Abbeduto, Ph.D.
Professor, Educational Psychology,
Associate Director for Behavioral Sciences, Waisman Center, &
Director, University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, 
Waisman Center
Waisman Center
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI 53705
phone: (608) 263-1737
fax: (608 263-7710