The Spanish-language MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (S-CDIs) are well-established parent report tools for assessing the language development of Spanish-speaking children under 3 years. Here, we introduce the short-form versions of the S-CDIs (SFI and SFII), offered as alternatives to the long forms for screening purposes or…

To understand the interactions between production patterns common to children regardless of language environment and the early appearance of production effects based on perceptual learning from the ambient language requires the study of languages with diverse phonological properties. Few studies have evaluated early phonological acquisition…

The relation of social and linguistic input measures to early vocabulary development was examined in 30 low-income African American mother-infant pairs. Observations were conducted when the child was 0 years, 1 month (0;1), 0;4, 0;8, 1;0, 1;6, and 2;0. Maternal input was coded for word types and tokens, contingent responsiveness, and…

The development of native language phonetic representations in bilingual infants was compared to that of monolingual infants. Infants (ages 6-8, 10-12, and 14-20 months) from English-French or English-only environments were tested on their ability to discriminate a French and an English voice onset time distinction. Although 6- to 8-month-olds…

This study investigates three aspects of social communication in 12-month-old infants and their caregivers: (a) caregiver conversational style, (b) caregiver gesture, and (c) infant engagement. Differences in caregiver behavior during passive joint engagement were associated with language outcomes. Although total mean duration of infant time in…

Argues that parental input is an important factor often neglected in research that may mediate language outcomes. Investigated how parents interact with their 12-month-old children, who suffer from otitis media status. Results indicate that parents of chronically affected children direct attention more often and engage in fewer joint attentional…

Examined maternal talk about events regarding hidden, missing, or absent persons or objects, and the relationship of maternal language to children's acquisition of words for disappearance, among 12 mother-infant pairs. Results found that infants who had acquired "gone" and similar terms experienced more disappearance events than children…

Presents case studies of the production of fricatives, affricates, and liquids--late-developing consonants--in the babbling of infants in an English-speaking environment. These consonants are compared with early-developing consonants--stops, nasals, and glides. Results provide evidence for the frame dominance conception but suggests early rarity…

Children raised in the home as English or Welsh monolinguals or English-Welsh bilinguals were tested on untrained word form recognition using both behavioral and neurophysiological procedures. Behavioral measures confirmed the onset of a familiarity effect at 11 months in English but failed to identify it in monolingual Welsh infants between 9 and…

Describes a study of adult listeners' perceptions of infant babbling. Adult judges were unable to identify language background significantly above chance level. Findings do not support the babbling drift hypothesis which predicts that babbling begins to approximate characteristics of the mother tongue as infants approach meaningful speech. (SED)

Examined the relationship between caregiver input to 9-month-old infants and their subsequent language. Mother-infant dyads were videotaped at ages 9, 12, and 30 months. Language comprehension was measured by parent report and correlated with an independent language measure. Found that the total number of words mothers used when their infants were…

Using Locke's 1983 model, analyzes one tendency, consonant use in babbling and early words, and phonological word-selection patterns in 10 children, aged 8 to 16 months. Individual differences were found in all three domains analyzed, with some increase in uniformity across subjects with increasing knowledge of language. (Author/SED)

Reports on the continuing study of a congenitally acochlear child using an analytical focus on the prelinguistic vocalizations involving the description of syllable groupings within a prosodic hierarchy. Results indicate that audition is not necessary for the formation of prelinguistic phrasing, but hearing does influence certain aspects of…

Exploration of the usefulness of a visual preference technique for assessing word comprehension in infants demonstrated increases in comprehension from 8 to 14 and 14 to 20 months; established longitudinal stability of comprehension from 14 to 20 months; and showed a profound effect of stimulus salience and the lack of sex differences in word…

The relationship between different measures of maternal directiveness and different measures of referential style were investigated in the same group of eight mother-infant dyads. Findings suggest that the attentional regulation hypothesis may be less valuable as a means of explaining stylistic variation in early vocabulary composition. (15…