Shovels and swords: How realistic and fantastical themes affect children's word learning

• We tested how realistic and fantastical content affect children's word learning.
• 154 low-income preschoolers learned 20 new words via bookreading and play activities.
• There was no difference in word learning on a test of comprehension.
• Fantastical content lead to better learning on a test of production.
• Fantastical themes have the potential to boost preschoolers’ learning abilities.

Research has shown that storybooks and play sessions help preschool children learn vocabulary, thereby benefiting their language and school readiness skills. But the kind of content that leads to optimal vocabulary learning – realistic or fantastical – remains largely unexplored. We investigate this issue as part of a large-scale study of vocabulary learning in low-income classrooms. Preschoolers (N = 154) learned 20 new words over the course of a two-week intervention. These words were taught using either realistic (e.g., farms) or fantastical (e.g., dragons) storybooks and toys. Children learned the new words in both conditions, and their comprehension knowledge did not differ across conditions. However, children who engaged in stories and play with a fantastical theme showed significantly greater gains in their production knowledge. Reasons for and implications of this result are discussed.