During their early years, children with autism may not meet the same communication and language milestones as their peers (Wodka et al., 2013). Many children with autism experience language delays and may rely on one-word or phrase speech, rather than using grammatically fluent speech (Anderson et al., 2007; Wodka et al., 2013) that is often…

Purpose: This tutorial is designed for speech-language pathologists who supervise speech-language pathology assistants (SLP-As) and/ or paraeducators. SLP-As and paraeducators often support young children with disabilities within early childhood settings, but do not always have access to professional development to learn and/or enhance their skill…

Early language is important because it provides the foundations for reading, for writing, for social development-- for learning in every subject. Increasingly, research makes the link between early oral language skills and future education progress. Therefore, the growing challenge of children starting school unable to speak in sentences could not…

Approximately 228,000 children from birth to age 3 are affected by a disability. Developmental challenges may include severe, chronic disabilities that can begin at birth and last a lifetime. Delayed speech and language are the most common types of developmental delays among infants and toddlers. Many of these children are at risk for later…

As the number of international adoptions has increased over the past 2 decades, so has awareness and understanding of the risks associated with the conditions to which these children have been exposed. Prenatal alcohol and/or drug exposure, infectious diseases, malnutrition, and psychosocial deprivation all contribute to the profound growth and…

The guide describes communication games--simple, noncompetitive structured activities designed to promote conversational and linguistic skills in children with language delays and language disabilities. The approach is distinguished from traditional approaches by the creation of a genuine need for talking rather than arbitrary demands, emphasis on…

The 15-month study followed the vocal development of five handicapped (Down Syndrome, hydrocephalus, and spina bifida) hospital reared infants. Results suggested that only the two less handicapped infants demonstrated use of sounds for social interaction and that the other infants used vocalization primarily as protest or self-stimulation.…

Explores the development in children of dual-level phonological processing. The study suggests that even language-delayed six year olds form underlying representations composed of morphophonemic segments. Differences in performance between the groups studied (first graders, young adults, language-delayed first graders) are discussed. (55…

The article points out the most frequently occurring problems in pragmatic functions of children's language, reviews considerations in taking and analyzing spontaneous language samples, and provides a summary of a dialog sample. (Author/CL)

This study assessed the influence of a 10-week parent-child intervention group on the vocabulary development of 10 late-talking toddlers. Results demonstrated the efficacy of the focused stimulation approach in increasing overall and target vocabulary acquisition. Parents reported satisfaction with the program in terms of the child's vocabulary…

Many parents question what is normal and what their kids should be doing at different ages. More and more, parents are turning to their local libraries for advice. Besides being empathetic supporters and referring parents to the rich resources within our libraries that detail language-development milestones for young children, librarians need to…

Noting that in a traditional view oral language comes before literacy, addresses some of the aspects of the development of literacy in children with communicative delay. Describes the experience of two children who began constructing their own literacy as they were involved in an intensive speech-language intervention program. (TJQ)

Language development is the topic of three papers from the Macomb (Illinois) 0-3 Regional Project, a home based program for rural handicapped and high risk infants and toddlers. Cooperative efforts between the project and university speech and hearing services are described in the first paper. The second paper, addressed to parents, covers ways to…

A home-based interventionist effectively taught four mothers to embed the mand-model procedure in daily activities to teach expressive language skills to their young children with speech delays. During the intervention phase, parents were provided with feedback along with specific encouragement to use the individualized instructional program…

This article describes the program of the Sign Talk Children's Centre (Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada), a bilingual/bicultural day-care program for deaf and hearing children (ages two to five) of deaf and hearing parents. It also describes the program's systematic assessment of children's language delays in both English and American Sign Language. (DB)