In this episode of Beyond Words, host Garrett Oyama, MS, CCC-SLP, and UCLA developmental psychology researcher Nikhita Prabhu, MA, examine how children learn emotion words and other abstract concepts.
How does a child learn what “jealous” means? Unlike a word like “dog,” there isn’t one thing a caregiver can simply point to. Learning emotion words requires children to connect language with facial expressions, behaviors, situations, bodily experiences, causes, and other information that may not be directly observable.
Drawing from Nikhita’s research with children ages 4 to 6, they discuss how children begin to organize different types of emotions and how caregiver language may help shape their developing understanding. Her findings offer an interesting look at the roles of repetition and vocabulary diversity as children build and organize emotion concepts.
Garrett and Nikhita also consider what these findings may mean for clinicians teaching emotion vocabulary, including how much repetition matters, what kinds of contextual information support understanding, and how children move from broad concepts like happy, sad, and mad toward more nuanced emotion words such as jealous, anxious, and frustrated.
How does a child learn what “jealous” means? Unlike a word like “dog,” there isn’t one thing a caregiver can simply point to. Learning emotion words requires children to connect language with facial expressions, behaviors, situations, bodily experiences, causes, and other information that may not be directly observable.
Drawing from Nikhita’s research with children ages 4 to 6, they discuss how children begin to organize different types of emotions and how caregiver language may help shape their developing understanding. Her findings offer an interesting look at the roles of repetition and vocabulary diversity as children build and organize emotion concepts.
Garrett and Nikhita also consider what these findings may mean for clinicians teaching emotion vocabulary, including how much repetition matters, what kinds of contextual information support understanding, and how children move from broad concepts like happy, sad, and mad toward more nuanced emotion words such as jealous, anxious, and frustrated.
