The paper focuses on the modal auxiliary system in English as it pertains to language development in language-impaired and normal children. The syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic functions of modals are described. Assessment and intervention guidelines are offered. (Author/DB)

Children with language disorders experience problems in three dimensions of semantics: (1) content of content (reference, referents, concepts); (2) form of content (structural units of meaning); (3) use of content (functional variation in meaning). Teacher intervention strategies in each area (e.g., for problems of reference, sentence meaning,…

Past studies of autistic children's memory for linguistic materials have shown that autistics have a special linguistic coding difficulty. Because the autistic deficit stems from a failure to use semantic and syntactic knowledge or from a failure to acquire such forms, future research should explore the mechanics underlying this deficit. (PJM)

A review of the literature on children with language disorders characterized by semantic and pragmatic impairments suggests that some of these conditions may stem from the same fundamental cognitive and interpersonal difficulties found in early childhood autism. A summary of recent research and theory in autism is also presented. (Author/DB)

Research is reviewed on language growth between 10-14 years in children with language-learning disabilities. Delays are discussed in semantic development, concept formation, syntactic development, memory, and pragmatics. A strategies-based intervention focus is described along with the need for counseling and for developing adaptive coping and…

The review of studies on parental language to language-impaired children cites methodological problems and discusses findings on the following topics: parental effects on language development, the importance of discourse contingencies, (semantic contingencies, acknowledgments, and parental self-repititions), sentence types and associated…

Deals with an examination of available evidence concerning the speech of language impaired children, and an inspection of the evidence regarding other, nonlinguistic behaviors of these children that require related abilities in mental representation. (Author/MP)

Discusses the language development in individuals with Down's syndrome in both early childhood and adulthood, and outlines intervention programs to assist language development in these individuals not only in their early years but throughout their lives. (71 references) (CFM)

The article presents a literature and state-of-the-art review on language training for children with severe communication deficits. (DLS)

The article presents a rationale for the application of a stage process model to provide speech clinicians with guidelines, based on complexity, for the content and sequencing of communicative behaviors to be used in planning remedial programs for children with language disorders. (Author/DLS)

The purpose of this book is to bring together essays--first published in the "Harvard Educational Review"--that identify and explicate critical issues and positions on language and reading, examine many educational and political problems arising from these issues, and illuminate the historical and philosophical developments that have made literacy…