Studies are reviewed on the role of metalinguistic skills in acquiring communicative competence and implications are considered for language-disabled children. Normal and delayed development of metaprogmatics--or "talking about talking"--is traced with attention to performatives (the speakers's goals), presuppositions, and conversational…

The article examines clinical issues that must be considered in planning preschool language intervention aimed at integrating pragmatic theory into the treatment plan. The clinician's role in the process is examined, and solutions to problems in meeting individual needs within a group and being accountable are offered. (CL)

The article analyzes therapeutic interactional styles with language disordered children, notes a shift in clinical goals and in clinical procedures as influenced by behaviorism, psycholinguistics, and sociolinguistics. A typical therapy session is described incorporating features that facilitate normal language acquisition (such as imitation and…

The article on the effects of social and linguistic environment on language learning in children reviews findings on child-centered interaction styles, touching upon interactional style and language processing and cross-cultural studies of interactional style. (CL)

Research is reviewed on the ability of language-disordered children to select and modify their speech based on the listener and the situation. Among conclusions drawn are that language-disordered children, in general, are sensitive to listener characteristics as well as situations appropriate to their level of linguistic development. (CL)

The article examines children's requests for clarification (RQCLs) in sections on the development of RQCL behaviors in normally developing children, the use of RQCL behaviors by language-impaired children, evaluation of language-impaired children's use of RQCL behaviors, and facilitation of language impaired children's use of and response to…

The nature and development of discourse topic skills in preschool children are examined and illustrated by observations of very young children. Possible social and cognitive components are explored with implications for language-disordered populations. (CL)

The discussion of older language disordered children's syntactic development focuses on an increase in T-units (minimal terminal units) and an expansion of types of cohesion (ways in which children tie their utterance structures together). Implications for assessment and treatment are drawn. (CL)

The need to teach precursors to literacy as part of preschool language therapy with language-disordered children is stressed. Assessment and intervention approaches include developing the child's ability to use language in instructional contexts and facilitating language awareness (such as word and phonological consciousness). (DB)

Confusion is cited regarding the meaning and nature of central auditory dysfunction, and types of tests composing a central auditory test battery are described. Tests focus on auditory closure, auditory figure-ground, and dichotic listening. (CL)

The research on metalinguistics in language-impaired children is reviewed indicating that deficits are not all-pervasive but focus on tasks that require sophisticated linguistic abilities or explicit judgments about language form. Such deficits may result from basic encoding problems of cognitive material. (DB)

The article looks at syntactic deficiencies involving simple clause structures and grammatical morphology in young children. A framework for understanding the development of simple clause structures is presented followed by a discussion of the correlates of early syntactic development. Procedures to assess and remediate syntactic deficiencies are…

The article reviews normal developmental patterns for naming and discusses research comparing children with normal language and those with language disorders. Implications for assessment and intervention approaches for children with word finding difficulties are noted. (CL)

The article reviews studies on the assessment of rapid auditory processing abilities. Issues in auditory processing research are identified including a link between otitis media with effusion and language learning problems. A theory that linguistically impaired children experience difficulty in perceiving and processing low phonetic substance…

The article reviews the development of action words in the language of young children, provides a rationale and basis for the choice of action forms to include in an early vocabulary, and suggests strategies for facilitating action-word development in language impaired and normal children. (DB)