Susan Neuman

Children's semantic knowledge, which is the organized knowledge of words, their meanings, and the relations among them, is one of the most important predictors of early literacy development and academic achievement. In this project, the research team will explore the mechanisms by which educationally at-risk pre-kindergartners' semantic knowledge can be improved through taxonomically-organized educational materials. Taxonomies are conceptually coherent categories organized in a hierarchical ...

The purpose of this research is to explore the mechanisms by which low-income preschoolers' vocabulary development and oral language comprehension are influenced by their experiences with educational media. The specific aims of this research are to define the features of educational media that support low-income children's vocabulary acquisition and oral language comprehension; establish how these features impact low-income children's engagement with educational media; and determine the exte...

This project seeks to explore the mechanisms influencing children's vocabulary knowledge and literacy development. In particular, the researchers will explore how children's development is influenced by their experiences with naturally occurring language. This research is designed to address how the cognitively challenging conceptual features of child-directed speech impact children's language development, the interactive effects of parents' and teachers' speech on children's vocabulary know...

The purpose of this project is to develop an intervention that teaches word meanings in categorically related concepts essential for reading comprehension and content learning. The intervention is designed to address the gap in vocabulary knowledge between children from economically disadvantaged backgrounds and their middle-class peers. The World of Words (WOW) intervention specifically targets high-risk preschoolers. The WOW curriculum is intended to increase vocabulary and conceptual k...