The ability of 10 language learning disabled (LD) children (age 9-12) and 10 sex/age matched normals to judge correctness of linguistic stress and semantic appropriateness was examined. Results indicated more difficulty on the linguistic stress task than the semantic interpretation task for LD children and better performance by normals on both…

Families of language-impaired children (N=76 and mean age 9 years) reported higher rates of first degree relatives with childhood language and/or learning disabilities than did families of matched controls. (Author/DB)

Twenty-nine learning disabled (LD) students in grades 1-4 were compared with non-LD students on comprehension of relative clauses. Ss were given baseline, 2-way, and 3-way reversible sentences to test comprehension and examine strategy differences. Results showed that LD students performed more poorly than non-LD students for all sentence types at…

Children's ability to recall information and draw inferences from orally presented narratives was examined in sixteen nine- to ten-year-old language/learning (LLD) disabled children and two groups of normally developing children. The LLD children did not differ significantly from the younger aged control group. (Author/DB)

Fifty-five first- and second-grade learning-disabled (LD) children were subdivided into six perceptual and linguistic subtypes using hierarchical cluster analysis techniques. Three distinctive patterns of learning disabilities were found, representing a specific language disability (27%) and two variations of mixed perceptual and linguistic…

The role of memory deficits in learning disabilities (LD) was examined. It is argued that a shift in emphasis is necessary from standardized test results to the processes which underpin performance on such tests. (Author)

Sixteen language learning-disabled adolescents were able to provide fewer correct metaphor interpretations than 16 normally achieving adolescents. For both groups, metaphors were easier to interpret by paraphrase selection than by verbal explanation, and perceptual metaphors were easier to interpret than psychological metaphors. (Author/JDD)

Compares the communicative behaviors of 18 learning disabled/language impaired (LD/LI) children with two matched groups of normally developing children. LD and normal groups were matched up by age and language mates, and observed for evidence of communicative effectiveness and verbal output. Findings of the study are discussed and related to the…

The author describes ways in which an organic curriculum--in which students actively plan goals based on their needs--helped an impulsive sixth grader and a language handicapped 20-year-old acquire reading skills, vocabulary, and master phobic reactions. (CL)

The Pre-Reading-Screening Procedures and the Slingerland Screening Tests for Identifying Children with Specific Language Disability were administered to 1021 grade one to six students. Results indicated that reliability and validity coefficients were acceptable and that educational programing decisions could confidently be based on the test…

The Test of Language Development was administered to a purposive sample of early elementary learning disabled students in an effort to analyze their language performance. Statistically significant differences were indexed between receptive and expressive language skills for this sample. (Author)

Administered McCarthy Scales of Children's Abilities to preschool children of normal intelligence with (n=25) and without (n=25) speech/language disorders. Speech/language disorders group had significantly lower scores on all scales except Motor; showed difficulty in short-term auditory memory skills but not in visual memory skills; and had…

The study evaluated the ability of six learning disabled adolescents with normal language ability and eight learning disabled adolescents with deficient language skills to appropriately mark ambiguous referents. Subjects were compared with control groups of normally achieving chronologically age matched adolescents and children matched with the…

The Test of Adolescent Language (TOAL) was administered to 7 educable retarded, 23 learning disabled, and 24 possibly gifted adolescents. With 57 percent of the EMR and 27 percent of the LD scoring below the test floor, results suggested that TOAL is not valid for assessing low language levels. (Author/DB)

Describes a study of gist recall in language impaired children. Stories were read to groups of normal and language impaired children and oral recall was requested immediately. The groups differed primarily in the amount of accurate recall. It seems that language impaired children are deficient in recall for material within their linguistic grasp.…