Research article summary (published 30 May 1992):

Young children's idiom comprehension: trying to get the picture.

Full Abstract

Young children (3.5-6.5 years of age) were tested for their comprehension of 10 common idioms in context and no-context conditions. Results revealed a significant linear trend for children to make more literal responses with increasing age. Children of this age did not find the story contexts helpful in interpreting the idioms. A range of comprehension scores was found among the individual idioms, but semantic transparency (as judged by adults) was not related to comprehension. Child-internal and methodologic variables influencing idiom comprehension are discussed.

Author information

Author/s: Abkarian, G G (GG); Jones, A (A); West, G (G);

Affiliation: Department of Communication Disorders, Colorado State University, Fort Collins 80523.

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Journal Article

Journal: Journal of speech and hearing research (J Speech Hear Res), published in UNITED STATES. (Language: eng)

Reference: 1992-Jun; vol 35 (issue 3) : pp 580-7

Dates: Created 1992/07/22; Completed 1992/07/22; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 1608249, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 2/18/2009, IMS Date: )

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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MeSH headings (categories)

This article was linked to the MESH Headings shown below.

Child Child Language Child, Preschool Female Humans Language Tests

Language Tests Linguistics Male Semantics Verbal Behavior Verbal Learning

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