Hesitation serves many purposes, allowing us to choose and combine words better, make discourse more cohesive and regulate its flow, and think. Frequency and length varies with the cognitive activity, but is not always easy to interpret. Foreign language instruction can help students interpret hesitations and use them to advantage. (MSE)

Examines the Child Language Data Exchange System (CHILDES), its organizational form, and its three major tools: (1) the CHILDES database of transcripts, (2) the CHAT system for transcribing and coding data, and (3) the CLAN programs for analyzing CHAT files. (GLR)

For several years in Switzerland it had been clear that adolescents with previous learning difficulties in their own country experienced even greater academic problems in Switzerland where they were expected to attend school with native speakers of French. Therefore, an experimental class was organized of Spanish and Italian-speaking children who…

The Double Administration Naming Technique assists clinicians in obtaining qualitative information about a client's visual confrontation naming skills through administration of a standard naming test; readministration of the same test; identification of single and double errors; cuing for double naming errors; and qualitative analysis of naming…

The paper describes the linguistic/cognitive challenge of answering yes/no questions appropriately. The coping strategies of normally developing children are used as the basis for tutorial suggestions for intervention with the developmentally delayed. (Author/CL)

The presentation examines information on the issue of language-reading dependency and the roles that speech language pathologists (SLPs) can play to address both skills. The relationship of oral language and reading development is examined in terms of models (such as the Top-Down/Bottom-Up model) and hypotheses and research etiology. Studies on…

The paper examines factors in the differential diagnosis of language-based learning disabilities, reviews models of language processing, and lists frequently used measures of language form (syntax and morphology), content (semantics), usage (pragmatics), and processing. Case studies of three children with various degrees and types of language…

The article describes ways in which the oral language specialist can help language-delayed children develop reading comprehension skills. Examples include using discussion techniques to bring meaning to personalized written communications; using barrier games to enhance comprehension of messages; and providing oral experiences to help children…

Physical Verbalization (PV) is a program designed to encourage language/speech development by combining movement with appropriate verbal patterns. Using the normal developmental stages of listening/watching, imitating, and initiating, the program allows the child to "play" with standard English in a nonthreatening and rhythmic fashion and to be…

The study evaluated the effects of an auditory monitoring and feedback approach on an adolescent boy's schizophrenic language patterns. The approach attempted to increase the subject's auditory awareness and to train him to identify and correct the linguistic errors of others and, eventually, of himself. Language samples were analyzed at baseline…

A parent training program used at the Humboldt State University Speech and Hearing Center helps parents of language impaired children learn to incorporate language facilitation techniques into their daily interaction with their children. The approach used is the INREAL model which was designed to improve the language and related learning skills of…

Nine aphasia tests were reviewed using seven psychometric criteria appropriate to standardized tests. The need for test manuals to contain a wide range of psychometric information is discussed, and, in particular, the role of subject description in test standardization is emphasized. (Author/CL)

The article points out the most frequently occurring problems in pragmatic functions of children's language, reviews considerations in taking and analyzing spontaneous language samples, and provides a summary of a dialog sample. (Author/CL)

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…

Reviews cases which support the view that parts of the left hemisphere control languages, no matter how it is expressed, while right-side regions are involved only in skilled nonlinguistic movements and perceptions. Compares recent findings with previously held theories. (ML)