Strong oral language skills are foundational for literacy development and begin before a child enters formal schooling. Oral language development has been related to pretend play abilities in children. Children, particularly those from disadvantaged areas, who enter school with low pretend play levels and oral language abilities, are at risk for…

The oral language proficiency of students in early education is crucial as teachers draw on this as a resource when developing literacy. There is a need to better understand what this oral language resource consists of at school entry, particularly the diversity amongst children so as to address inequalities. This article reports a study on a key…

This study observed expressive communication of 17 Australian and 15 Taiwanese children with autism who were mute or had limited spoken language during 2 hour regular school routines and analyzed teacher instructions associated with elicited expressive communication. Results indicated: (a) the frequency of occurrence of elicited expressive…

Expressive communication of Australian and Taiwanese children with autism who had limited spoken language was observed in naturalistic settings. Communicative forms, functions, and partners were investigated. No significant differences existed in the characteristics of expressive communication between children with speech and those without speech.…

While there has been much interest in the differences between oral and written language styles, studies have focused on the relative use of certain features. Little attention has been paid to the cultural value given to language style in languages with a literary tradition versus value given to style in those with a non-literary traditions. All…