Lots of words are made up of smaller units of meaning, called *morphemes*. We measured children's awareness of morphemes, and looked at its importance for reading comprehension.
Within education, the *Matthew effect* describes how the “rich get richer” in literacy skills. We focused on this effect in vocabulary, and asked how existing vocabulary knowledge might support memory for new words.
A book at bedtime provides opportunities for language learning. Our recent study suggests that learning new words before sleep might help us to remember them.
Why do some children excel at vocabulary learning while others get left behind? We’ve been thinking about how new word learning builds upon vocabulary we already have.