Uses data from Toddler Sign Program, a nine-month program of bimodal input and assessment involving 25 handicapped and nonhandicapped toddlers (11 to 33 months old at program onset). Explores boundary conditions (most extreme conditions under which a phenomenon holds) of sign advantage phenomenon (where signs are learned earlier and more easily…

Kim (1985) found that both English-speaking and Korean-speaking children find true negative sentences more difficult to verify than false negative sentences. A closer examination of the findings reveals that the difficulty is greater among Korean-speaking children. (Author/RH)

Replies to Akiyama's critique, pointing out areas of agreement between the Kim and Akiyama studies and areas of disagreement. Concludes that, contrary to Akiyama's argument, the Kim (1985) data would not directly challenge the cognition primacy hypothesis in any serious manner. (RH)

The gesture systems developed by 10 deaf children, each incapable of acquiring a conventional spoken language naturally and not exposed to a conventional manual language by their hearing parents, were compared and contrasted to both the speech and the gesture systems developed by three hearing children learning English. (Author/BE)

Research on second language acquisition (SLA) and research on foreign language learning (FLL), often regarded as different and separate fields of inquiry, are compared in a brief review of literature. Perceptions about the scopes and characteristics of the research are examined. Concerns about the relationship between SLA research and theory and…

Krashen's Monitor Model of second language learning is examined critically in light of other research, and a unified, more comprehensive theory combining theories of first and second language learning is called for. (MSE)

The development of early vocalizations was investigated with 13 infants who had Down's syndrome and 27 infants developing normally, at bimonthly intervals from 4 to 18 months of age. Both groups demonstrated increased production of mature syllables over time as well as large variations in vocal development, both within and across groups and across…

This study compared pragmatic skills of 5 children (ages 4-6) with specific language impairments (SLI) and their younger siblings matched for mean length of utterance. Analysis of communicative acts on three levels (social interchange, speech act, and conversational) indicated comparable performance within sibling pairs, but SLI children…

In the controversy over the conceptualization of language and verbal behavior there is an underlying unity of goals and concepts, characterized in the teaching and learning of the first language as acquisition or transmission of skills. Both the behaviorist and cognitive perspectives of learning accommodate this point of view conceptually, if not…

Processes of language development are viewed as controlled by genetic program (1) written at a level of moderate generality, (2) with executive control based within the organism, and (3) including process for fostering interaction with relevant environment. Evaluates above view in light of data from three research papers (published in this issue).…

Forty-eight preschool-age children were administered the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children-Nonverbal Scale and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) Performance Scale. Pearson product-moment correlations between the two scales ranged from .59 for a language-delayed group to .79 for the entire sample. Subjects…

Investigates differences in the language learning environments of six twin pairs and 12 singleton toddlers (all firstborn) with special reference to pragamatic factors that might be expected to differ in dyadic and triadic interactive situations. (HOD)

The study found that eight specifically language-impaired children (ages four and five) were more limited than eight normally developing children (ages two and three, matched for mean utterance length) in the use of both subject case marking and verb morphology. A relationship between the two types of usage was found in both groups of children.…

A study was carried out to test the hypothesis that mothers' speech to eight-month-olds differs as a function of maternal age. The subjects were 10 adolescent (mean age 16.5) and 10 older (mean age 24.5 years) mothers, all lower to middle class, first-time mothers, and Caucasian. Each mother and child pair was videotaped in a laboratory…

Investigates the metalinguistic ability of monolingual or bilingual children between five and nine years of age on two language tasks (grammaticality judgment and correction). (HOD)