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Children’s development of semantic verbal fluency during summer vacation versus during formal schooling

Rosqvist, Ida LU orcid ; Sandgren, Olof LU orcid ; Andersson, Ketty LU orcid ; Hansson, Kristina LU orcid ; Lyberg-Åhlander, Viveka LU and Sahlén, Birgitta LU (2020) In Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology 45(3). p.134-142
Abstract

Purpose: Children’s results on school-related achievements tests, such as aspects of math, reading and writing, have been shown to decline following a lengthy summer vacation. Few studies have investigated whether this also applies to vocabulary skills. The purpose of this study is to investigate how lexical organization and retrieval, assessed by a semantic verbal fluency (SVF) task, develops during a lengthy summer vacation versus formal schooling. Method: Sixty-eight children with mean age of 7.9 (ranging from 6.5 to 9.1), were assessed pre- and post-summer vacation and post-fall semester using two SVF categories (Animals and Clothes). The number of words produced in both categories gave the total score. Results: The result of the... (More)

Purpose: Children’s results on school-related achievements tests, such as aspects of math, reading and writing, have been shown to decline following a lengthy summer vacation. Few studies have investigated whether this also applies to vocabulary skills. The purpose of this study is to investigate how lexical organization and retrieval, assessed by a semantic verbal fluency (SVF) task, develops during a lengthy summer vacation versus formal schooling. Method: Sixty-eight children with mean age of 7.9 (ranging from 6.5 to 9.1), were assessed pre- and post-summer vacation and post-fall semester using two SVF categories (Animals and Clothes). The number of words produced in both categories gave the total score. Results: The result of the SVF tests decreased following summer vacation. The loss was recouped at the post-fall semester assessment, but no gains compared to initial testing were shown. Neither level of parental education, general language ability, non-verbal IQ, nor bilingualism explained the variance in development during the summer vacation or the fall semester. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that a lengthy summer vacation causes a recess in the expected development of SVF ability and that this recess is recouped after a semester of formal schooling. The findings are in line with previous research indicating that summer vacation may have negative impact on the development of important scholastic abilities in children.

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author
; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
language development, school calendar, semantic verbal fluency, summer loss, summer slide, Summer vacation, vocabulary development, word fluency
in
Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology
volume
45
issue
3
pages
9 pages
publisher
Taylor & Francis
external identifiers
  • pmid:31272256
  • scopus:85068584059
ISSN
1401-5439
DOI
10.1080/14015439.2019.1637456
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
11453cf8-4885-4799-9a8f-b042c811222d
date added to LUP
2019-07-17 12:15:06
date last changed
2024-04-16 15:54:44
@article{11453cf8-4885-4799-9a8f-b042c811222d,
  abstract     = {{<p>Purpose: Children’s results on school-related achievements tests, such as aspects of math, reading and writing, have been shown to decline following a lengthy summer vacation. Few studies have investigated whether this also applies to vocabulary skills. The purpose of this study is to investigate how lexical organization and retrieval, assessed by a semantic verbal fluency (SVF) task, develops during a lengthy summer vacation versus formal schooling. Method: Sixty-eight children with mean age of 7.9 (ranging from 6.5 to 9.1), were assessed pre- and post-summer vacation and post-fall semester using two SVF categories (Animals and Clothes). The number of words produced in both categories gave the total score. Results: The result of the SVF tests decreased following summer vacation. The loss was recouped at the post-fall semester assessment, but no gains compared to initial testing were shown. Neither level of parental education, general language ability, non-verbal IQ, nor bilingualism explained the variance in development during the summer vacation or the fall semester. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that a lengthy summer vacation causes a recess in the expected development of SVF ability and that this recess is recouped after a semester of formal schooling. The findings are in line with previous research indicating that summer vacation may have negative impact on the development of important scholastic abilities in children.</p>}},
  author       = {{Rosqvist, Ida and Sandgren, Olof and Andersson, Ketty and Hansson, Kristina and Lyberg-Åhlander, Viveka and Sahlén, Birgitta}},
  issn         = {{1401-5439}},
  keywords     = {{language development; school calendar; semantic verbal fluency; summer loss; summer slide; Summer vacation; vocabulary development; word fluency}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{3}},
  pages        = {{134--142}},
  publisher    = {{Taylor & Francis}},
  series       = {{Logopedics Phoniatrics Vocology}},
  title        = {{Children’s development of semantic verbal fluency during summer vacation versus during formal schooling}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14015439.2019.1637456}},
  doi          = {{10.1080/14015439.2019.1637456}},
  volume       = {{45}},
  year         = {{2020}},
}