Combinatorial abilities in language and elicited symbolic play were compared in a longitudinal study of 30 children at 20 and 28 months. In addition, multivariate analyses were used to assess the stability of individual differences. Generally, different symbolic play variables contributed unique explained variance to different language variables.…

Conversational samples of 10 dyads of 4-year-old children during play were analyzed. All dyads evidenced some lengthy topics (13-91 utterances), characterized by 3 text-level functions: enacting scenarios, describing, and problem solving. Three-fourths of all dialogues were considered relatively short. (Author/JDD)

Explores the relations among combinatorial capacities in language, symbolic play, blockbuilding, and nonsemantic action sequences within a sample of 18- to 24-month-old children, as well as assessing the developmental level of a selected subset of concepts. (HOD)

A classroom-oriented therapeutic program was devised for four pragmatically impaired preschoolers who showed little spontaneous language use within the classroom. Intervention strategies focused on facilitating interactions during free play and were based on four principles for practitioners: be child-oriented; engineer the environment; use…

This article on sampling early semantic productions reports a study of 6 children (ages 31-35 months) with specific language impairments. Subjects produced a greater frequency and diversity of multiword utterances in a free-play sampling situation than in a joint action routine sampling situation. (JDD)