Background: Language interventions are complex behavioural interventions, making it difficult to distinguish the specific factors contributing to efficacy. The efficacy of oral language comprehension interventions varies greatly, but the reasons for this have received little attention. Aims: The aim of this meta-analysis was to examine which…

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) often demonstrate delays in early language and literacy skills. Shared reading, the practice of adults reading aloud to children while using behaviors (e.g., asking questions) that are meant to promote interaction between the adult and child, is an intervention that has had positive effects on those…

Oral language and word reading skills have important effects on reading comprehension. The Wechsler Individual Achievement Test-Third Edition (WIAT-III) measures both skill sets, but little is known about their specific effects on reading comprehension within this battery. Path analysis was used to evaluate the collective effects of reading and…

This study examined the relations between problem behaviors and early learning outcomes among 138 children in dual-language pre-K programs who were identified at the beginning of the school year to be at risk for difficulties in early language and literacy development. Children's expressive and receptive vocabulary, listening comprehension, and…

Background: Poor comprehenders have difficulty comprehending connected text, despite having age-appropriate levels of reading accuracy and fluency. We used a longitudinal design to examine earlier reading and language skills in children identified as poor comprehenders in mid-childhood. Method: Two hundred and forty-two children began the study at…

Background: Children with specific language impairment experience story comprehension deficits. Research with typically developing children, poor comprehenders and poor readers has shown that the use of mental imagery aids in the comprehension of stories. Aims: To evaluate the effectiveness of an intervention program in the use of mental imagery…

Noncomprehension signaling by 16 school-age children with mild mental retardation was compared with performance of 16 typically developing children matched for nonverbal mental age. Message type and speaker were manipulated in a direction-following task. Message type, not speaker, influenced noncomprehension signaling, with no intergroup…

Discusses methods of assessing language comprehension in apes. Considers the possible effect of brain physiology on the differences between productive and receptive language skills. Examines the possibility that differences between synaptic transmission and volume transmission, or transmission across extracellular spaces, of neurological impulses…

Discusses the assessment of children's early language comprehension by the use of (1) parent reports; (2) preferential-looking models; and (3) event-related brain potentials. Examines recent findings on dissociations between language comprehension and production in normal, late-talking, and brain-injured children and considers the implications of…

The study examined patterns of cognitive ability in 57 cleft lip and palate children (ages 7 to 9) with verbal deficit, but without general intellectual retardation to evaluate whether the verbal disability displayed by these children was related primarily to a specific verbal expression deficit or a more general symbolic mediation problem.…

In this paper, different means of assessing cognitive development in children with severe impairments in "both" their expressive language and their motor skills are reviewed. A range of techniques are considered, including traditional cognitive tests and behavioral and physiological measures, but these techniques are generally impractical and…