Spoken or sung? Examining word learning in child-directed speech and in song.

Authors

Mackensie Blair, Lindsay Hawtof, Giovanna Morini

Published in

Journal of child language. Pages 1-13. Jul 10, 2025. Epub Jul 10, 2025.

Abstract

The present study examines whether presenting words in song versus spoken sentences can lead to differences in word learning in 47-50-month-old children. This work extends previous findings on this topic and evaluates whether the location of pitch changes within the song may contribute to how well the words are learned. Using a Preferential Looking Paradigm, 32 children were taught the names of objects, either in spoken sentences or in a song that followed an unfamiliar melody. In both conditions, the novel word was emphasized by a pitch change. Looking patterns indicated that children learned the names of the novel items better when the words were trained in the spoken sentence compared to the song condition. The findings are discussed in relation to theories of word learning, and how differences in the characteristics between speech and song may relate to variability in how well new words are acquired.

PMID:
40638823
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 11 Jul 2025.

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