The study compared play among five groups of children (ages 3-7 years): normal children (N=41); those diagnosed with language delays (N=241), those with autism but normal intelligence (N=71), those with autism and mental retardation (N=97), and those with nonautistic mental deficiency (N=86). Each child was evaluated using a 25 minute structured…

Despite considerable work concerning relationships between cognition and language in the second year of life, these relationships remain obscure. Clarification depends on resolution in at least three major areas. First, studies should be expanded beyond the scope of cognitive prerequisite models that have been difficult to conceptualize and that…

Updating a 1977 review, this review of the research concerning parents' effects on their children's development asks what progress has been made in understanding such effects during the last decade. After presenting findings of the earlier review, discussion focuses on five areas of research: temperament, attachment, cognitive development,…

The conferencee discussions and papers presented in this volume reflect the opinions and research of 20 authorities in the field of communication development. These authorities offer new perspectives on nonverbal communication, speech reception and production, and the development of language and thought. To provide a better understanding of…

A study investigated whether children expect color similarity to be less important than form similarity in object label extensions. Twenty 2-year-olds and 20 3-year-olds were asked to sort objects similar in either color or form in two different situations: (1) the "No Label" condition where children were asked to help the puppet put objects that…

The report reviews assessment guidelines developed for visually impaired infants (birth-24 months). Project staff examined research on the assessment of infants with vision loss and identified material relevant to their needs. Following a review of existing assessment tools, guidelines were prepared in the following areas: social competence,…

The paper details the impact of blindness and visual impairments on young children's development. Specific developmental risks are examined for the following areas (sample difficulties in parentheses): body awareness (delayed concept of object permanence), motor development (lack of incentive to explore and resultant delay in purposeful movement),…

The relationship between writing skills development and cognitive development is the focus of numerous research studies and deserves significant consideration in curriculum planning. Writing development studies indicate that as children work through the various modes of discourse (argumentation, exposition, narration, and description), they…

This document contains a 44-page child assessment checklist developed by the Circle Preschool First Chance Project, a government-funded model program for integrating handicapped children into regular classes. Six skill areas of child development are detailed: language, cognitive, gross motor, fine motor, socio-emotional and self-help. Included are…

This classroom screening device was developed by the Circle Preschool First Chance Project, a government-funded program to integrate handicapped children into regular classroom activities, for use in preschools, nursery schools, Head Start centers and other agencies working with young children. It is designed to give a gross measure of a child's…

Two children's spontaneous utterances containing the comparative structure are examined for their semantic content. Many comparatives are found to encode the notion "A has property X," and this use is often found in reference to the presence of X to an extreme, rather than a non-extreme, extent. The uses of the comparative are analyzed…

The focus of this paper is on how bilingual children may benefit through a reading method that allows them opportunities to perceive and conceptualize aspects of the English language using a Piagetian model. The paper presents the analysis and prevention methods used for correcting difficulties encountered by bilingual students, and argues that…

The extent to which individual differences in pictograph recall performance are related to reading readiness and other aspects of language and cognitive development is examined in this paper. In each of three studies kindergarten children were taught names and toy enactions for approximately 30 pictographs. The kindergarteners were then…

THE RELATIONSHIP OF ENVIRONMENT AND THE DEVELOPMENTAL PROCESS OF THE BEGINNING SCHOOL CHILD WAS EXPLORED. MORE SPECIFICALLY, THE OBJECTIVES OF THIS RESEARCH WERE TO DESCRIBE THE MAJOR DIMENSION THROUGH WHICH ENVIRONMENT IS LIKELY TO INHIBIT DEVELOPMENT AND TO SPECIFY THE AREAS THAT HAVE BEEN MOST INFLUENCED BY UNFAVORABLE ENVIRONMENTAL…