الفهرس 
Review of LiteratureOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
The motive for this study was understanding the importance of semantic development of preschool children. Moreover, semantic development among Egyptian Arabic-speaking children was not yet comprehensively studied. Therefore, this study was done to construct and standardize a comprehensive test that assesses the semantic development and provides an indicative chart of the order, amount, and type of semantics developed by preschool children aged from 2 - 4 years. This test will help Phoniatricians and speech-language pathologists in determining the deficits of semantic development among children with delayed language development and help in designing a language therapy plan suitable for each child’s age and deficits.
A statistically significant difference was found between lexical-semantic growth among the 4 age groups. Semantic growth is positively correlated to the chronological age of the participated children.
This study revealed that lexical-semantic development develops as early as the age of 2 years. Noun classes and verbs started to be identified by children at the age of 2 years. As children grow; noun vocabulary increases both expressively and receptively. Adjectives started to be acquired at age of 2.6 to 3 years and were mostly identified by the age of 3 to 3.6 years.
Regards the identification of basic concepts, concepts begin to appear at the age of (2.6 – 3 years), the child can understand some of the time concept (day and night), understand the concept of color change, understands some of the place concept (children can also use the word above and under correctly).
As for other concepts; time concept (day and night), the concept of quantity (more than), the concept of change in size, and other concepts of place (in between and beside) start to appear receptively by the age of 3 years to 3 years and 6 months, also the word (above and under) are used expressively at this age group.
The concept of (summer and winter) is better understood receptively by the age of 3.6 - 4 years. Children understand the concept of place at the age of 3 - 3.6 years and can use it in expressive language (above and under). However, the more complex preposition (beside and in-between) is better understood by the age of 3.6 – 4 years.
As for the Identification of the prototype name it starts to appear receptively as early as the age of 2 -2.6 years, the child understands the name of some prototypes (food and animal) but cannot express them.
However, categorization begins to appear (receptively) as early as the age of 2.6 to 3 years. They can group clothes and fruits, but still, they cannot categorize them expressively.
On the other hand, categorization of objects is fully understood by the age of 3 to 3.6 years, but still, they cannot categorize it expressively. At last, word relations appear receptively by the age of 2.6 to 3 years, children can understand some polysemy. At this age some antonyms are also acquired expressively; they can label some antonyms (up and down, small and big) (expressively) and label some reverse verbs (laugh and cry, wakes up and sleep) (expressively).
On the other side, some meronyms start to appear at the age of 3 to 3.6 years. Most reverse verbs are acquired also at this age.
However, other difficult antonyms (full and empty, sick, and healthy) and most word relations are more developed by the age of 3 to 3.6 years.
The current work concluded that EAST is a valid and reliable assessment tool for early semantic development among Egyptian preschoolers. The current work raised the notion of the importance of early detection and early intervention of semantic deficits. This could be attributed to routine checks of early semantic abilities among preschool children in the primary care unit. The present work recommended a longitudinal study that utilizes a larger sample of participants. It can be concluded from the current study that the EAST is an objective tool, with high reliability and validity in evaluating Egyptian Arabic Semantic development and it can be used as an effective tool for follow-up of the intervention program.