Describes an ethnographic study of African American toddlers and families that focused on children's productive competence in naturally occurring narrativelike conversation. Examines emergence of narrative competence; posits definition incorporating minimal requirements for child participation within the fundamental essence of narrative structure.…

Maternal education is a strong correlate of children's language, cognitive, and academic development. In most prior research, mothers' education has been treated as a fixed characteristic, yet many mothers, particularly economically and educationally disadvantaged mothers, attend school after the birth of their children. In the present study, we…

The Early Head Start evaluation included 17 sites drawn from the first two waves of programs started more than a decade ago. By design, the Administration on Children, Youth and Families (ACYF) selected programs that would reflect the range of service options and context of all extant program rather than choosing a representative sample. The sites…

This study investigates how/whether the emergence and function of Turkish Tense Aspect Modality (TAM) markers that are used in narratives by children from 3 to 9 plus 13-year-olds show differences relative to the age of the narrator both quantitatively and qualitatively. The data were collected, by using Mayer's (1969) wordless picture book…

The paper reviews research on cerebral hemispheric functioning and considers the implications for instruction of the deaf. The nature of right and left hemisphere function and communication is addressed, as are findings on cerebral asymmetry for aspects of language processing. Studies on hemispheric specialization of hearing impaired persons…

In three experiments, children five- to 10-years-old were assessed on their comprehension of simple and compound comparatives using a picture-question answering task. Ability to use appropriate reference points increased with age on both the simple and compound comparative relations. (PCB)

The comprehension of humor is described as a developmental ability related to children's cognitive, linguistic, and metalinguistic development. Examples illustrate the content and structure of riddles and jokes, as well as developmental changes in children's understanding. Ways to assess and develop humor comprehension are also discussed.…

Results of a psychoeducational evaluation administered to 40 hearing-impaired children (5-18 years old) revealed that hearing loss of any degree appeared to affect psychoeducational development adversely, leading to the conclusion that even minimal hearing loss places children at risk for language and learning problems. (Author/CL)

Results of measures in the cognitive-social areas of communicative intent, tool use, imitation, and play and in language comprehension demonstrated uneven development for the autistic subjects. A functional analysis of communicative behaviors indicated a relatively homogeneous profile of communicative functions both quantitatively and…

This article discusses metalinguistic awareness (the ability to make language forms opaque and attend to them in and for themselves) its relation to literacy, its development in children from their play with language; and educational implications. (MS)

What is questioned here is not the teaching of words but their premature imposition upon the child before he has acquired the concepts that underlie them. (Author)

Proposes theory that the learning processes of first- and second-language learners are fundamentally the same, differing only in kinds of information used by both kinds of learners and the degree of automatization attained. Suggests designing second-language learning processes to simulate those occurring in natural settings. (Author/BK)

Results of a study involving 15 normally hearing and 15 hearing impaired 12-year-olds supported the cognitive basis of a language development curriculum for hearing impaired children. (CL)

A thinking skill-oral language-reading continuum for hearing impaired students is described. (CL)