Development of Word Definition Skill in Children

In linguistic studies, the word definition task is used for surveying organization of concepts in the mental lexicon. The aim of this study was to review the literature related to the developmental processing concepts and organization of using word definition task. Methods and Materials: Published articles on the subject of the development of word`s definition in children was surveyed using these keywords word definition, definitional skills, children within the timeframe of 1980– 2014. Databases of Science Direct, Springer, Google Scholar, Elsevier, PubMed, ASHA and related Iranian studies were used. In the word definition task, the children were asked to define words. The answers that be expressed in this task are scored based on content and form. By increasing the age and improvement of metalinguistic skills in schools, responses are closer to the Aristotelian definition. By increasing the age, noun definitions are developed from functional and concrete responses into more abstract and the conceptual responses, and also using of superordinate terms is increased. Increased use of super ordinate terms in definitions indicates that by increasing the age, concepts are organized into hierarchies of connections and super ordinates have connection with subordinates.