Defines criteria to identify children's language overextensions and investigates how young children in the early stages of language acquisition rename objects analogically during a standardized play situation. Results indicate that analogic extensions are well within the capabilities of children from one year, eight months to two years, four…

Young children were found to overextend and underextend newly uttered but previously understood words. The data are discussed in terms of differences between children's and adult's word meanings and between comprehension and production. (Author)

The relationship of object permanence and classification skills to receptive and expressive language development was investigated in infants. Object permanence, classification, and parent-child verbal interaction ratings were about equally related to language comprehension functioning, while permanence was more strongly related to language…

Describes a follow-up study of 25 boys who had been diagnosed with Specific Expressive Language Delay (SELD) at 24 to 30 months of age. At three to four years, half of the boys continued to exhibit poor expressive language skills, suggesting that young children diagnosed with SELD are at considerable risk for continuing language problems. (33…

Discusses linguistic theory, especially the distinction between participant'' and spectator'' language (the use of a language vs. the study of the language.) (SP)

This study investigated the interrelationship of articulation and receptive and expressive language performance by 306 children in kindergarten and first and second grade in Fort Collins, Colorado, with regard to age, sex, and socioeconomic level. Fifty-one males and 51 females from the sample group were tested on three pairs of tests: the Arizona…

Discusses how single-word usage reflects two stages in child language development. Early words express internal states and share none of the corresponding semantic features of these words in adult language. Later words approximate the use of adult language and share standard semantic features of adult indicative words. (JMF)

The current study attempts to differentiate effects of phonotactic probability (i.e. the likelihood of occurrence of a sound sequence), neighbourhood density (i.e. the number of phonologically similar words), word frequency, and word length on expressive vocabulary development by young children. Naturalistic conversational samples for three…

Analysis of videotapes of 19 parent-child dyads during bookreading when children were 2.5 years old, and subsequent analysis of the children's paradigmatic thought organization at 3.5 years, revealed a significant correlation between superordinate level labels in parents' talk and 3 measures of children's paradigmatic organization. (45 references)…

A study of the use of the complex Finnish morphological rule system in 45 children, aged 20-24 months, examined the children's inflection of nouns and verbs in speech characteristic of everyday Finnish. Analysis of the correct, unanswered, and incorrect test items found six classes of errors, which were then examined for clues to the underlying…

This investigation compares child language obtained with standardized tests and samples of spontaneous speech obtained in natural settings. It was hypothesized that differences would exist between social class and racial groups on the unfamiliar standard tests, but such differences would not be evident on spontaneous speech measures. Also, higher…

The question of whether children's accentuation strategies are determined by the linguistically established context was studied. A second investigation determined whether the difference between distinctive and nondistinctive information is marked by the speaker's accentuation, focusing the listener's attention upon the crucial information. In the…

This bibliography contains references to materials relating to language learning and development in the young child, specifically, speaking and understanding language. Receptive, communicative and expressive language as well as particular facets of language imitation and production are topics included. Reference materials are listed in four major…

These transcriptions of conversation illustrate linguistic behavior and interests of the average ten-year-old French child. Patterned after a previously transcribed series of conversations of nine-year olds, the 14 dialogues in this collection serve as a linguistic corpus suitable for educational research and textbook development. A graphic code…

Drawing from experiences in teaching kindergarten teachers in Saudi Arabia to conduct "sharing time" or "show and tell" sessions, discusses the activity's affective and cognitive value, indicating that teacher and peer feedback promotes language development and the growth of curiosity and inquisitiveness. Makes practical…