This study compared comprehension of idioms in 66 children comprising 3 groups: normal 9 year olds, 9-year-old children with mild mental retardation, and younger normal children matched with the retarded children for receptive vocabulary age. Although the normal nine year olds comprehended the most idioms, the mentally retarded children performed…

This study compared judgments of idiom familiarity and transparency by 50 11-year-old children and 50 16-year-old adolescents. Although the children had less familiarity and greater difficulty comprehending the idioms than did adolescents, their transparency judgments were similar. For both groups the easiest idioms were also judged as the most…

This study examined the association of chronological age (CA) with syntax and vocabulary comprehension in 102 children and adolescents with mental retardation. Results indicated that intelligence scores accounted for 55% and 29% of the variability of syntax and vocabulary scores, respectively. Introduction of CA into the regression equation…

Two social factors and their interactive effects were examined as possible influences on children's detection and reporting of inconsistent statements. Factors were the stated intention and the age of the speaker. (PCB)

Deaf children with signing parents, nonnative signing deaf children, children from a hearing impaired unit, oral deaf children, and hearing controls were tested on theory of Mind (ToM) tasks and a British sign language receptive language test. Language ability correlated positively and significantly with ToM ability. Age underpinned the…

This paper reviews the literature on grammatical knowledge in language comprehension in the preschool years from the perspective of sensitivity to structural contrasts. Studies of both direct and indirect evidence of sensitivity to structural contrasts were evaluated and showed that there may be a developmental sequence of increasing sensitivity…

This study evaluated the validity of language-assessment instruments with Native American children, ages 3 to 5. Results indicated that the Preschool Language Scale-3 provides a valid assessment of the receptive and expressive language skills of 3- and 4-year-old Native-American children. However, use of this scale with 5-year-old Native Americans…

This study examined developmental changes in lexical comprehension in 100 bilingual individuals at five age levels, all of whom had learned Spanish as a first language and English beginning at age 5. Although skills improved in both languages over time, by middle childhood performance was better in English, with this transition occurring earlier…

Annual evaluation of the speech perception performance of 34 prelingually deafened children, grouped into those who received cochlear implants either before or after age 5, found open-set word recognition performance was significantly better for children implanted before age 5. Amount of daily use of the implant significantly affected all measures…