The impact of emphatic stress on novel word learning by children with specific language impairment

This investigation examined the influence of emphatic stress on children's novel word learning. Forty school-age children participated in this study, including 20 children with specific language impairment (SLI) and 20 childr en with normal language (NL) development. Results indicated that there were no significant stress effects for comprehension or recognition of novel wo rds (for which all children demonstrated relatively high levels of performa nce); however, children in both groups exhibited significantly better produ ction of words that had been presented with emphatic stress than with neutr al stress. These findings are discussed within a limited capacity framework of language processing.