Development of Vocabulary Depth Test for Children in Group of Age between 4 - 6

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to develop a Vocabulary Depth Test (VDT), which assesses the depth trait of the semantic knowledge and to analyze the vocabulary depth performance of the typically developing children aged between 4 and 6. It is based on a cross-sectional design. In the designation of the study group, stratified sampling included in random sampling is used at the first stage and 3 schools from lower, medium and higher socio-economic level are designated. The study group contains in total 201 children who attend public or private pre-school education institutions in Izmir. The VDT contains 24 question words in syntagmatic relations, meronymy and paradigmatic relations in total presented in third sections with eight questions in each and all the illustrated question words in VDT, corresponding to one correct answer included in four alternatives in total, are presented verbally. The results obtained show that there is a developmental order from the words with syntagmatic relations to words with paradigmatic relations. When the VDT performances of children at different socio-economic levels are considered, there is a significant difference in the average of the children from lower socio-economic level when compared to those from medium or higher socio-economic level.