Reciprocal development of oral word and sentence comprehension during elementary school

This study examined the co-development of efficiency in word- and sentence-level semantic processing during spoken language comprehension throughout elementary school. A longitudinal study with five time points between Grades 1–4 included 1,120 German elementary school children (MageT1 = 6.82, 513 girls, 254 L2 children). Word meaning retrieval efficiency was measured with a semantic categorization task, sentence comprehension efficiency was measured with a sentence verification task. An extended cross-lagged panel model revealed consistent but delayed word-to-sentence-effects, whereas only Grade 1 sentence comprehension predicted later retrieval of word meanings. These findings suggest a reciprocal, but asymmetric developmental relation, as efficient retrieval of word meanings increasingly supports efficient sentence comprehension, while only earlier efficient sentence comprehension facilitates subsequent retrieval of word meanings during elementary school.