Language Development across the Life Span: A Neuropsychological/Neuroimaging Perspective

Table 4

Verbal fluency means and (standard deviations) for children and adolescents.

Reference/category		Language	Age (years)
			5-6	6-7	7-8	8-9	9-10	10-11	11-12	12-13	13-14	14-15	16-17
Crowe and Prescott [145]	155	English
Animals			8.9 (3.0)		12.3 (4.6)		15.8 (4.0)
Body parts			9.9 (4.2)		13.0 (5.1)		17.1 (4.5)
Clothes			8.4 (2.8)		11.0 (3.9)		12.3 (4.4)
Foods			8.1 (2.9)		11.9 (4.9)		14.3 (4.1)
Plants			3.7 (2.7)		5.5 (2.5)		7.4 (3.7)
Vehicles			5.3 (2.2)		8.3 (3.0)		9.7 (3.3)
Filippetti and Allegri [146]	120	Spanish
Animals					12.0 (3.3)		14.2 (3.6)
Fruits					7.3 (1.9)		9.0 (2.3)
/f/					4.9 (1.8)		7.2 (2.7)
/a/					5.7 (2.6)		6.8 (2.5)
/s/					5.1 (2.4)		6.7 (2.9)
Kavé [56]	180	Hebrew
Phonemic-bet					5.3 (1.8)		7.4 (2.1)		9.4 (3.4)		11.7 (3.8)	13.5 (3.9)
Gimel					5.7 (2.5)		7.6 (2.3)		9.8 (3.1)		12.2 (3.5)	13.3 (3.6)
Shin					6.5 (2.7)		7.2 (2.8)		10.3 (3.5)		11.0 (3.2)	13.8 (4.0)
Animals, fruits and vegetables, vehicles					27.2 (9.2)		36.7 (10.2)		43.7 (10.4)		46.2 (10)	53 (10.3)
Matute et al. [57]	171	Spanish
Fruits			9.8 (3.6)		11.2 (2.7)		12.4 (2.6)		13.5 (2.9)		15.7 (3.1)
/m/			5.8 (2.8)		7.2 (3.0)		8.6 (2.8)		9.3 (3.4)		12.5 (4.4)
Sauzéon et al. [59]	140	English										15-16 yrs old
FAS				4.5 (1.4)	6.3 (1.9)			7.6 (2.0)		9.1 (2.1)		10.6 (2.2)
Fruit & supermarket				8.8 (2.2)	11.5 (2.5)			13.2 (3.0)		14.3 (2.5)		15.1 (2.3)
Tallberg et al. [147]	130	Swedish	6 yrs old			9 yrs old			12 yrs old			15 yrs old
FAS			8.8 (6.0)			16.0 (5.6)			27.3 (6.0)			30.1 (8.4)
Animals			9.5 (3.2)			13.5 (4.0)			17.6 (4.4)			18.7 (3.9)
Chan and Poon [148]	90	Chinese		7–11 yrs old					12–14 yrs old			15–18 yrs olds
Animals				15.4 (3.2)					17.7 (4.2)			18.5 (3.9)
Transportation				10.6 (3.1)					11.8 (3.4)			13.9 (4.3)