Background: Oral language competence provides children with an essential foundation for academic achievement and emotional well-being, yet many children enter school with delayed language and those living in economically disadvantaged areas are at disproportionate risk of experiencing language difficulties. A tiered system, offering high-quality…

Associations between home learning opportunities, parental growth mindset (the belief that intelligence is malleable), and children's academic skills have been documented primarily in European descent communities. Less is known about other communities. This study examined associations among home learning opportunities, parental mindsets, and child…

Associations between home learning opportunities, parental growth mindset (the belief that intelligence is malleable), and children's academic skills have been documented primarily in European descent communities. Less is known about other communities. This study examined associations among home learning opportunities, parental mindsets, and child…

The transaction of children's core language skill and their home learning environment was assessed across 5 waves from infancy (15 months) up to adolescence (11 years) in 1,751 low-socioeconomic status families. Child core language skill and the quality of the home learning environment were each stable across waves, and the two covaried at each…

While it is established that parental "wh"-questions, as a high-quality language input, are associated with child language outcome, less is known about the role of children's "wh"-questions in their language development. This study examines whether children's "wh"-questions during a dinnertime conversation are…

Intended for teachers in Tasminia, this book focuses on the school setting as a place that supports children as language users. The booklet suggests that when setting out to develop a language program teachers need a knowledge of the relationship between child development and language acquisition; an understanding of how the organization of the…

This paper considers language development among children and discusses the influence of the learning environment in the acquisition of language use as distinct from language structure. The results of the five studies reported here suggest that the child is aided by what he is encouraged to say, not simply by what he hears, and that adults seem to…

Delays in language acquisition can have serious deleterious effects on the education and social development of children. A number of related language intervention procedures have been developed for use in natural settings. These procedures include incidental teaching, modeling, manding, time-delay, and milieu language teaching. The present paper…

Discusses pre-linguistic and linguistic stages of language acquisition that are part of a continuum of receptivity and communication every child experiences in the first 3 years of life. Suggests parents assist language development by being sympathetic to each developmental turning point, providing the right emotional climate for expression, and…

Discusses the centers of language in the brain and the critical period for language acquisition. Explains developmental milestones of language development--receptive language, babbling, short phrases, full sentences--in the context of brain development. Emphasizes parents' role in language development, including talking to the child, dialogic…

Based on a longitudinal study of language development, this book charts the language development of 32 British children from shortly after their first birthdays to the end of their elementary education, and explores a number of questions related to this development. Chapter 1 describes the children and their families, chapter 2 discusses the…