THE VALIDITY OF WORD AGE-OF-ACQUISITION RATINGS - A LONGITUDINAL-STUDY OF A CHILDS WORD KNOWLEDGE

Abstract

The age at which a child first said and read each of 94 picturable nouns was recorded. At ages 9:6 and 11:6, the child was asked to estimate the age she first said these words. Her age‐of‐acquisition estimates were found to be highly correlated with the actual ages of first saying and reading the words. Age‐of‐acquisition estimates were also highly stable over the two‐year‐period. Frequency of saying the words and ease of saying them appeared to be important factors used in making age‐of‐acquisition judgements. The results support the validity of age‐of‐acquisition ratings used in memory research.