Combining home-school literacy bags with preschool family literature circles provided a strong foundation for family involvement at home and school during this year-long Reading Partners project, and helped parents become essential partners in their children's literacy development. Using home-school literacy bags, children and parents learned…

How to help babies and young children right from birth to become competent in talking as well as emergent literacy is illustrated by research findings as well as with specific clinical stories. Both kinds of knowledge can serve to galvanize parents and teachers to increase awareness of infant and preschool language development and the crucial role…

This article highlights the importance of the information obtained from the family in the implementation of the augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) system. The objective was to investigate the communicative abilities of children with severe communication deficit through their parents' reports within the family routine. Eleven parents…

Three trends emerged from independent parent and teacher ratings of receptive communication and expressive forms and functions among students with severe disabilities and visual impairment/blindness. Parents had higher ratings than teachers, receptive communication was rated the highest, and no skills occurred often. Implications are discussed for…

In families with two working parents, fathers make important contributions to children's early language skills. Results from a new study by FPG Child Development Institute show that children whose fathers' vocabulary was more varied when they were two, had greater language skills at age three. Mother's vocabulary was not found to have a…

A home-based interventionist effectively taught four mothers to embed the mand-model procedure in daily activities to teach expressive language skills to their young children with speech delays. During the intervention phase, parents were provided with feedback along with specific encouragement to use the individualized instructional program…

SKI*HI is a program designed to identify children with hearing impairments as early as possible and to provide them and their families with complete home programming that will facilitate development. The delivery model includes identification/screening services, home visit services, support services, and program management. A parent advisor makes…

The article describes a language and communication program for severely disabled children that focuses on establishing a balanced and matched communicative relationship between the child and his or her natural teachers. Four developmental areas are discussed in relation to the establishment of social-communication habits: social play,…

Children with language delays often manifest low rates of self-initiated expressive language, particularly in school settings. Children with mild to moderate language delays appear to develop this pattern as a means of coping with situations in which they believe they are unable to perform or may perform poorly. Interactive language training…

The STRIVE Program, an approach to identifying and serving culturally diverse (Black and Hispanic) gifted students, is described. The STRIVE model consists of six modules: gifted programing; receptive and expressive language training; counseling (individual and group); relevant curriculum providing transitory skills; a parent advisory board; and…

Three children with language impairment (ages 38 to 41 months) and their mothers participated in a study evaluating a storybook reading process for facilitating mother-child interactions. The complete reading cycle (CRC) involved: (1) attentional vocative, (2) query, (3) response, and (4) feedback. Results indicated changes in mothers' storybook…

Principles of language assessment and instruction for Spanish speaking preschoolers at St. Mary's Hospital in Tucson, Arizona, are presented. Basic definitions and program model (which looks at the child's communication skills based purely on semantic content contained in spontaneous language samples) are explained. The program's theoretical bases…