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Core Vocabulary Determination for Toddlers
MEHER BANAJEE*, CYNTHIA DICARLO and SARINTHA BURAS STRICKLIN
School of Allied Health Professions, Louisiana State University, Medical Center, 1100 Florida Avenue,
New Orleans, LA 70119-2799, USA
The aim of this study was to develop a core vocabulary list for toddlers. Naturally occurring
(i.e., unprompted) vocabulary was collected for 50 toddlers, aged from 24 to 36 months,
enrolled in five different preschools, during two different activities (play within interest
centres and snack time). Results revealed that all 50 children used nine common words across
both routines, and that the list contained pronouns, verbs, prepositions and demonstratives.
Words representing different pragmatic functions (e.g., requesting, affirming, negating) were
also included. Nouns were absent from the list. These data are consistent with similar studies
into the core vocabularies of adults, adolescents, and preschoolers.
Keywords: Core; Fringe; Vocabulary; Toddlers
INTRODUCTION
Increasingly, Augmentative and Alternative
Communication (AAC) devices are being used
with toddlers (children between the ages of 24
months and 36 months) who exhibit expressive
communication delays. Several factors have
contributed to this trend in the USA, including
(a) full implementation of Part C of the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA, 1997)
1
which includes policies, proce-
dures, and funding for assistive technology for
children birth to 3 years of age with special needs;
(b) recent advances in technology that have made
AAC devices easier to use, more accessible, and
lower in cost; and (c) wide ranging acceptance of
recommendations from AAC researchers and
practitioners (e.g., Kangas & Lloyd, 1988) to
begin implementing AAC strategies with infants
(0 – 24 months) and toddlers (24 – 36 months)
with communication delays before they attain
certain prerequisite cognitive skills.
The increased use of AAC with young children
creates several challenges for the field, in
particular, the identification of suitable vocabul-
aries when devising age-appropriate AAC
systems. Some older children and adults may be
able to generate their own messages by using the
alphabet to spell, for example; however, pre-
literate toddlers are unable to generate their own
unique messages using letter-by-letter spelling.
For these toddlers, significant adults typically
select and program vocabularies on AAC devices
using an appropriate representation system (e.g.,
pictures, icons, or photographs).
According to previous research (Beukelman,
McGinnis, & Morrow, 1991; Blackstone, 1988;
Morrow, Beukelman, & Mirenda, 1989), there are
three main approaches to selecting vocabulary for
children: developmental, environmental, and
functional. A developmental approach involves
the use of developmental vocabulary lists (Fristoe
& Lloyd, 1980; Holland, 1975; Lahey & Bloom,
1977; Reichle, Williams, & Ryan, 1981), that are
comprised of words chosen from developmental
language inventories that have been developed on
the basis of language acquisition principles.
Knowledge of the development of different word
forms (e.g., nouns, verbs) and the number of
words that children typically use at a certain age
or developmental level is used to determine
vocabulary for AAC systems. An environmental
approach (Beukelman & Garrett, 1988; Blau,
1983; Carlson, 1984; Fried-Oken & More, 1992;
Karlan & Lloyd, 1983; Mirenda, 1985) follows an
ecological inventory process, in which words
appropriate for specific communication environ-
ments (i.e., fringe vocabulary) are identified and
programmed on AAC devices. According to
Yorkston, Dowden, Honsinger, Marriner, and
Smith (1988) fringe vocabulary is specific to each
communication environment (e.g., marker, paper,
and crayon for an art activity; cookie, drink, and
spoon for a snack activity). The third approach,
functional communication, interfaces with the
pragmatic aspect of language. Vocabularies are
*Corresponding author. Tel.: (504) 942-8200. Fax: (504) 942-8253. E-mail: mbanaj@lsuhsc.edu
Augmentative and Alternative Communication, June 2003 VOL. 19 (2), pp. 67–73
ISSN 0743-4618 print/ISSN 1477-3848 online #2003 Taylor & Francis Ltd
DOI: 10.1080/0743461031000112034
chosen based on expressed communication func-
tions such as requesting, commenting, greeting,
and protesting.
Identification of core vocabularies for toddlers
involves aspects of all three approaches to
vocabulary selection. A core vocabulary consists
of words common to the vocabularies of peers
who are similar in age (Yorkston et al., 1988).
Vocabulary lists are based on the language
inventories of typically developing toddlers and
include the number of words and different word
forms that children between the ages of 24 and 36
months typically use. Core vocabularies are small
in size and do not change across environments or
between individuals. Common words used across
all communication environments comprise core
vocabulary lists, which include structure words
(e.g., want, more) that provide a framework for
functional language use.
Both core and fringe vocabularies are impor-
tant for communication purposes; however,
children appear to use core vocabulary more
frequently than fringe vocabulary (Beukelman,
Jones, & Rowan, 1989). In a study of the
frequency of word usage by six preschoolers,
Beukelman et al. (1989) analyzed language
samples for common or core words. They found
that the 25 most frequently occurring words
accounted for 45.1% of the sample collected.
Fifty of the most frequently occurring words
represented 50% of the sample, and 85% of the
sample included 250 of the most frequently used
words. Some examples of these frequently occur-
ring words included want, eat, and go – verbs,
demonstratives, propositions, and adverbs.
Nouns were not among the common or core
words most frequently used by preschoolers
within the study sample.
Despite evidence that nouns are not among
core vocabulary used by preschoolers, Adamson,
Romski, Deffenbach, and Sevcik (1992) reported
that clinicians typically select nouns representing
foods and objects as first symbols when designing
AAC systems. According to Adamson et al.
(1974) clinicians reported that nouns are chosen
because they are considered to be easiest to teach
and assess and are of considerable functional use
to the communicator. In addition, the clinicians
often omitted other words (e.g., want, more, help)
that regulate interaction from augmentative
communication systems and are harder to teach
and represent on communication systems. When
Adamson et al. (1974) added these action words
(in addition to the nouns) to communication
boards used by young males with moderate to
severe intellectual disabilities, the frequency with
which they used these boards increased from 2 to
41%. The Adamson et al. (1974) study is one of
several recent studies that have demonstrated that
combining core and fringe vocabulary words
increases the frequency of AAC use (e.g., Beukel-
man et al., 1991; Yorkston, Dowden, Honsinger,
Marriner, & Smith, 1989).
Researchers have attempted to identify lists of
words that could be included in a core vocabulary
for a variety of people who use AAC, including
adults (Balandin & Iacono, 1998); adolescents
(Adamson et al., 1992); and preschoolers (Beukel-
man et al., 1989; Fried-Oken & More, 1992). Of
these studies, Beukelman et al. (1989) is the most
relevant to the identification of a core vocabulary
for use by toddlers, given its focus on the
vocabularies of preschool children. Beukelman
and his colleagues audio-recorded and tran-
scribed the spoken communication samples of
six nondisabled preschool children (3 years 10
months to 4 years 9 months) in three different
classrooms. Three of the participants were male
and three were female. Teachers nominated these
children for participation in the study because
they were ‘active verbal participants in the
preschool program’ (p. 244).
Conversational samples collected by incon-
spicuously audio-recording the target children in
the classroom across six sessions were analyzed
for vocabulary commonality. A commonality
score of 6 indicated that all six participants
produced the targeted word, whereas a score of
1 indicated that only one participant produced
the word. Twenty-five words were identified as
the most frequently occurring words (i.e., words
that obtained a commonality score of 6). These
words were mainly verbs, prepositions, pronouns,
demonstratives, and articles. They also repre-
sented different semantic functions, including
affirmation, negation, nomination (or labeling),
and interrogation. Pragmatic functions repre-
sented included recurrence, termination, request-
ing actions, and establishing and maintaining
joint attention. No nouns were noted in this list of
25 words.
Published studies that identify core vocabul-
aries for toddlers could not be found in AAC or
related literature. Accordingly, the Beukelman et
al. (1989) study served as a foundation for the
present study, whose purpose was to begin the
process of identifying a core vocabulary for
toddlers by collecting language samples (during
play activities and functional classroom routines)
from speaking toddlers and analyzing these
samples for common words. For the purposes of
this study, a core vocabulary list was defined as a
list of words used by toddlers across all activities
during both play within interest centers and snack
time activities. The specific research questions for
the study were: (a) Does the vocabulary used by
68 M. BANAJEE et al.
toddlers differ across different activities? (b) Are
common words used by toddlers across different
activities? (c) What are the common words used
by toddlers across different activities? and (d)
What kind of syntactic, and pragmatic and
semantic functions do these common words
serve?
METHOD
Participants
Fifty toddlers between the ages of 24 and 36
months served as participants in the study; 34
were girls and 16 were boys. The participants
were recruited from five daycare centres/nursery
schools in different socioeconomic areas (urban
and suburban regions) within a large metropoli-
tan area. In addition to meeting the criteria of age
and enrolment in the selected child care centres,
parent consent was obtained for each of the
children who participated.
All of the participants were screened using the
Ages and Stages Questionnaires (ASQ), a parent-
completed child-monitoring system (Bricker &
Squires, 1999). The ASQ indicated that partici-
pants were functioning at age-appropriate devel-
opmental levels, used a variety of two to three
word utterances, spontaneously initiated interac-
tion, maintained interaction by taking turns,
terminated interaction appropriately, and consis-
tently followed simple one-step directives and
some two-step directives without gestures.
Setting
Participants were enrolled in nursery schools and
day care programs located within inner city and
suburban areas. All programs shared common
features: (a) the classroom schedule included at
least one free play and one snack time activity
during the day; (b) care and education were
provided by at least one teacher and one teacher
assistant; (c) classroom environments were orga-
nized by interest centers (e.g., blocks, dramatic
play, art); (d) the classroom schedule provided for
both small group and large group activities; and
(e) some activities were led by an adult (e.g.,
snack time) whereas others were child-directed
(e.g., center time).
Although materials across each of the class-
rooms differed, each of the classrooms had some
common materials. As an example, the block
centers contained a variety of different blocks
(e.g., Legos
TM
, cardboard blocks) and building
materials (e.g., pop beads). Materials in the
dramatic play centers included dress up materials
(e.g., sunglasses, beads, shoes) and cooking
utensils (e.g., a stove, pots, and pans). The art
centers included materials such as paper, crayons
and markers, whereas the manipulative area
contained different cause-and-effect toys. Each
of the classrooms also included areas for reading
books.
Across all of the classrooms, snack time
activities took place at designated tables. After
the children had washed their hands, they were
asked to sit at the snack table where they were
served by a teacher or assistant. They were given a
choice of juice or milk to drink, but they were not
given a choice of snack items; however, the
children could request more snack or drink. When
finished, the children were required to clean their
area and place trash items in a garbage can.
During snack time, the children were restricted to
the snack table; however, during free play
activities they were free to move from interest
center to interest center. Teachers and teaching
assistants interacted with the children during both
snack time and play within interest centers.
Apparatus
Three voice-activated tape recorders with lapel
microphones (Radio Shack
TM
Optimus CTR-
115) were used to record the language samples.
Voice-activated tape recorders helped to record
words spoken by the target toddler only. Adult
and peer speech was too distant for the recorder
to be activated. The toddlers wore the tape
recorders at the waist in a small bag. A lapel
microphone was plugged into the tape recorder
and clipped to the collar of the toddler. High
quality microphones were used, in order to
compensate for difficulties in understanding
tape-recorded toddler speech; this provided a
clear recording of the speech used by the toddlers.
Procedures
Data collection
Data were collected using the procedure outlined
in Beukelman et al. (1989). This procedure
involved audiotaping interactions among the
target children, the classroom staff, and other
classroom children during two different categories
of activities on three separate days. One category
of activities included child-directed play across
five different classroom interest centers (e.g.,
blocks, dramatic play). The second category
involved an adult-directed activity, snack time.
Each activity lasted for approximately 20 min.
During free play, children were allowed to play
freely within any of the interest centers. Audio-
tapes were reviewed for the first 150 utterances
69CORE VOCABULARY
within interest centers and snack time activities
across all three days. These 150 utterances
included the first 25 words used by each child
across the two activities on each of the 3 days.
Data were collected after the children had
become accustomed to wearing the microphones
and tape recorders. After the first 2 – 3 days, most
children (and some of their peers not included in
the study) asked to wear the tape recorders and
would talk about them with adults in the centers.
It took an average of 2 weeks across the five
daycare centers/nursery schools for the children
to wear the apparatus and resume their typical
play behaviors without distractions from the
recorders. Data were not collected during this
phase of the study.
Data analysis
The language samples recorded during both
categories of activities on all 3 days from all 50
children were analyzed. Three students enrolled in
a communication disorders Master’s level
program were trained by the first author to
develop a written, verbatim transcription of all
of the language samples. During the transcription
process, audiotapes were stopped after each
utterance and a verbatim transcription was
completed of the utterance. Unintelligible utter-
ances were omitted from the transcription. If
intelligibility problems were identified during any
point in the day, the entire day’s recording was
omitted and was not used for transcription.
Analyses were conducted to examine common-
ality among the words across activities and
children (as outlined by Beukelman et al., 1989).
Each new word was given a score of 1. If the same
child used a particular word in both activities, the
word was given a score of 2. A word used in both
activities on all 3 days was given a score of 6. In
addition, words with the same commonality score
were ranked according to frequency of use, which
was defined as the percentage of the number of
times each word was used in the language sample.
Using the method outlined by Miller (1989), type-
token ratios (number of different words divided
by the total number of words for each activity)
were calculated for all 50 children per activity for
each day. Average type-token ratio scores were
also reported for all 50 children per activity across
all 3 days. These ratios were compared with type-
token ratios of 3 year old children as reported by
Miller (1989).
Interrater reliability
Reliability was calculated on 20% of all word lists
across both activities (free play and snack time).
The first author conducted reliability checks
across language samples collected from one center
activity and one snack time activity of at least 10
of the children. Reliability scores were obtained
by dividing the number of agreements between
each student and the first author by the total
number of agreements and disagreements multi-
plied by 100. Mean reliability for sample
transcription, across all students, was 91%
(range = 86 – 95%). Mean reliability for the first
student was 89% (range = 86 – 92%), for the
second student it was 91% (range = 89 – 93%),
and for the third student it was 93%
(range = 91 – 95%).
RESULTS
Table 1 shows the list of words that achieved a
commonality score of 6 (nine words), 5, and 4.
TABLE 1 Words with commonality scores of 6, 5, and 4 and their frequency of use
Commonality Score
654
Words Frequency Words Frequency Words Frequency
I 9.5 mine 5.8 a 4.6
no 8.5 the 5.2 go 4.2
yes/yeah 7.6 is 4.9 what 3.1
want 5.0 on 2.8 some 2.3
It 4.9 in 2.7 help 2.1
that 4.9 here 2.7 All done/ finished 1.0
my 3.8 out 2.4
you 3.2 off 2.3
more 2.6
Note: Frequency is presented as a percentage.
70 M. BANAJEE et al.
The frequency of use of these words was
converted into a percentage score by dividing
the total number of words and multiplying by
100. As is evident from Table 1, eight common
words were used by most of the toddlers across
most of the settings, and six common words were
used by some of the children across some of the
settings.
Table 2 presents type-token ratios for each
activity on each day, as well as average scores of
each activity across all 3 days. These type-token
ratios were compared with those developed for
this age group (Miller, 1989) and were found to be
age appropriate. Ratios obtained during snack
time activity were lower than those obtained
during free play activities because of the limited
number of choices provided during this adult-led
activity.
The data were analyzed for syntax, semantic,
and pragmatic functions using the procedures
developed by Miller (1989) for analyzing free-
speech samples. The core vocabulary was found
to serve different syntactic, semantic, and prag-
matic functions. Core vocabulary words
contained demonstratives (that), verbs (want),
pronouns (my), prepositions (on), and articles
(the). No nouns were found in this list. Semantic
functions included use of agents (I), objects (you),
labeling objects (that) and actions (go), possession
(my), affirmation (yes), negation (no), location
(in), interrogation (what), quantity (some), and
termination (finished). Pragmatic functions
expressed included initiating interaction by
attracting attention (you), maintaining joint
attention (this), indicating recurrence (more),
and terminating interaction (finished).
DISCUSSION
Vocabulary selection is a difficult process when
designing age-appropriate AAC systems for
young children who do not speak. This is
especially true for children who are still preliterate
and, therefore, are unable to express their needs
and wants using traditional orthography (i.e.,
either selection of whole words or individual
letters to spell words). The literature review
indicated that some core words are used across
different activities of older children (Beukelman et
al., 1989), adolescents (Adamson et al., 1992), and
adults (Balandin & Iacono 1998), but information
was not available for toddlers. In the present
study, we examined vocabulary words used by 50
toddlers, in an attempt to redress this gap in the
literature.
The results of this study revealed that nine
common words were used across child-directed
free play and adult-directed activities within
nursery school and day programs. A further
analysis of the language sample revealed the use
of words to express different parts of syntactic,
semantic, and pragmatic functions. A lack of
nouns was noted in the common words used
across different activities. This finding seems
logical because activities in a typical classroom
contain different materials and toys. Further-
more, this finding reflects those obtained by
Beukelman et al. (1988), whose vocabulary lists
similarly contained very few if any nouns. The
addition of words from other syntax classes (e.g.,
verbs, demonstratives, and pronouns) helped to
increase frequency of use of the communication
systems (e.g., Beukelman et al., 1991; Yorkston et
al., 1989).
In the present study, the types of words in the
core vocabulary appear to be similar in syntax,
semantic, and pragmatic functions to those
identified by previous investigators of core
vocabulary for preschoolers (Fried-Oken &
More, 1992), adolescents (Adamson et al.,
1994), and adults (Balandin & Iacono, 1998).
The nine core words identified by this research
project were all included in the 25 most frequently
used words identified by Beukelman et al. (1989).
The similarities to past research help strengthen
the premise that a common core vocabulary can
be applied across activities and environments.
Clinical Implications
The results from the present study indicate the
need to include words that enable young children
to meet a variety of syntactic, semantic, and
pragmatic functions on their communication
devices. Some words that meet these needs might
be difficult to graphically represent, which may
result in their being omitted from the initial
overlays developed for communication systems.
Use of words that are difficult to represent
graphically may be taught to young children by
modeling the use of the words within activities. In
addition, consistently pairing the picture or
symbol (e.g., the Picture Communication Symbol
for ‘want’) with the word programmed on the
device should help to teach a child to use the same
symbol to request objects.
TABLE 2 Average type-token ratios across participants
per activity for each day
Activity Day 1 Day 2 Day 3 Day 4
Snack time 0.41 0.42 0.41 0.4133
Free time 0.44 0.43 0.44 0.4433
71CORE VOCABULARY
Words that were less frequently used by the
toddlers were also identified (Table 1). The words
from these lists included an extended core group
of words to draw from for vocabulary selection
for communication overlays to be used on voice
output communication devices. Thus, if a toddler
was able to use more than nine words, the word
lists with commonality scores of 5 and 4 (Table 1)
were used. These words also were found within
the 50 most frequently used words as identified by
Beukelman et al. (1989).
Research Implications
Although the results of the present study appear
to be promising, they should be interpreted with
caution because of certain limitations. First, the
size of the sample was small (i.e., 50 toddlers);
second, the sample used was a convenient one
(i.e., language samples were collected from
daycare or nursery centers with which the authors
had previous relationships); and third, the sample
involved more girls than boys, and the partici-
pants were predominantly Caucasian, which
means that the core vocabulary of the sample
may not be representative of the core vocabulary
used by children of different ethnic, cultural, or
socioeconomic backgrounds.
In addition, because the vocabulary was collected
across activities in daycare/nursery school settings,
it may not be representative of core vocabularies
used by children across different environments
(e.g., home, playgrounds, and grocery stores).
Marvin, Beukelman, Brockhaus, and Kast (1994),
found that children use different topics in the
preschool setting than at home, and argued that this
probably resulted from being exposed to different
toys, people, and routines (e.g., circle time in school
versus bath time at home). However, some overlap
of vocabulary across the two environments would
be expected as a result of similarities between
routines (e.g., meal times or toy play). Routines in
homes (e.g., dressing, bathing) may include
different materials and interactions that could
create the need to use different vocabulary words
than those used during routines in daycare centers.
Children who play on playground equipment that
requires them to use gross motor movements and
activities may need to use different words while
interacting with their peers and other adults than
they would during indoor activities, such as those
utilized in this study. Accordingly, just has been the
case for topics (Marvin et al., 1994), there is a need
to investigate vocabularies across many types of
environments, in order to ensure the validity of a
given core vocabulary.
In addition, words identified as core vocabulary
for toddlers who are not disabled may or may not
be appropriate for use by toddlers with expressive
communication delays. The core vocabulary list
identified in the present study needs to be used
with children who rely on AAC because they
either experience communication delays or are
unable to use speech, in order to determine how
useful the vocabulary is for them across different
activities.
Another potential limitation of the present
study is that only the first 25 words expressed
by each child per day per activity were used in the
analyses. These did, however, combine into a
corpus of 150 words in total for use in the
analyses. Typically, the middle 25 words are
included in a language sample (Miller, 1989);
however, this procedure was not used because
some language samples did not have sufficient
content. Some children, for example, produced
only approximately 25 words within the 20 min
activity. Although type-token ratios (calculated
for all 50 children per activity for each day) were
found to be age appropriate when compared to
those reported by Miller (1989), further investiga-
tion using larger vocabulary samples may be
warranted.
Further research is needed to investigate the
effectiveness of integrating core vocabulary words
with fringe vocabulary words on communication
devices. Researchers (Fristoe & Lloyd, 1988;
Holland, 1975; Lahey, 1977) have suggested that
core words and fringe vocabulary words be
included in the first lexical words selected for
language intervention. Additionally, researchers
and practitioners have recommended that fringe
words appropriate for different activities be used
together with core words in order to develop a
rounded communication system that could be
used across various activities and daily routines
(e.g., Beukelman et al., 1991; Yorkston et al.,
1989). Systematic investigations with toddlers are
needed to determine the utility of AAC devices
programmed with core words only, fringe
vocabulary words only, and core and fringe
words integrated within the system or stored
separately in the system in a way that may be easy
to retrieve and recall (e.g., in a different area for
each child or page). Future studies are also
needed to evaluate the utility of the core
vocabulary identified in this study on commu-
nication devices used by a variety of toddlers
across a variety of activities.
Note
1 Part C of the IDEA provides funding for the provision of
developmental services such as special instruction,
speech, and occupational and physical therapy to
children with disabilities
72 M. BANAJEE et al.
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