Weekly spontaneous imitations and spontaneous productions in the speech of two language-impaired males (3-4 years old) were compared over a 10-week period until MLU (mean length of utterance) approached or exceeded 2.0 morphemes. Although imitation was extensive in both boys' output, consistency of imitation over time differed for both and was…

While neither the linguistically normal nor the language-disordered groups had achieved an adult level of competence, normal children were much more aware of the interactive nature of discourse than language-disordered children. Language-disordered children frequently ignored and responded inappropriately to requests. (Author)

Jean Piaget's ideas regarding symbolic function are expanded in this paper to provide a model to use in distinguishing between general symbolic versus specific linguistic deficits in language disordered children (whose disorders are not due primarily to intellectual, sensory, motor, or social-emotional deficits). In applying this model to the…

In response to Leonard (EC 600 867), two aspects of language development are identified in which the discrepancies between domains of language and/or cognitive development often observed in specific language impairment children occur naturally as a consequence of individual variation in rate of development together with relative independence of…

An experiment was conducted to determine the validity of the theory that language-disordered children use the same strategies in acquiring phonological phenonema, in this case consonant clusters, as normal children do but at a later age. In acquiring productive use of consonant clusters, normal children go through three stages: (1) reduction or…

A study made to examine the development in production of the English verbal auxiliary and copula (VAC) "to be" compared a group of children with language dysfunction and a group of normal children. Two purposes were to see whether developmental differences are qualitative or quantitative and to calculate the importance of the VAC in language…

Two-word utterances of four language-impaired children (3 to 4 years old) at R. Brown's Stage I level of linguistic development were compared with two-word utterances of four young normal children at the same linguistic level to determine any differences between the two groups in the use of a set of 10 basic semantic relations. (Author/SBH)

Minimum language skills for kindergarten success are described and defined as "school readiness language." A school-readiness-language checklist gives a procedure for documenting a child's level of language skill. Specific techniques are presented to remedy documented gaps within the context of the kindergarten classroom. (Author)

This book presents a clinical procedure for presenting grammatical structure to children with language learning problems. The procedure is based on the developmental aspects of normal language learning and the natural, conversational setting in which children generally learn grammatical structure. Section 1 discusses the interactive language…

The study compared the use of language functions and language interactions in a structured setting with normal and language-disordered preschoolers. Language disordered children performed less appropriately on the average across all measures and the difference between groups was greater at younger ages. (Author/DB)

Attempts to demonstrate that specifically language-impaired (SLI) children can be viewed as normal learners faced with systematically altered input. By assuming SLI children are limited in their ability to perceive and hypothesize grammatical morphemes that are low in phonetic substance, many features of SLI children's language can be explained by…

The purpose of this study was to determine whether intensive tutoring of language-deficient preschool children could improve their language skills. Unexpected differences between the experimental and control groups were found. Differences may have resulted from lack of familial support for the program. (PCB)

A program was developed to provide for generalization training for two groups of language delayed children (N=11), ages 5 to 11, being served in two self contained special education classrooms. The program consisted of three components: teaching the target language construction in a controlled classroom setting, evaluation of language…

The followup study of 15 autistic and 14 dysphasic boys at middle childhood found that few of the autistic boys had developed good language skills; that the autistic group remained stable in its general characteristics; and that many of the dysphasic boys showed problems in peer relations. (DB)

This follow-up study to the Nijmegen Otitis Media study evaluated 270 children (age 7). A history of otitis media with effusion (OME), even up to nine instances, did not have negative consequences for language performance at age seven. Intermittent, as opposed to more continuous, OME was not found to affect language ability negatively. (Author/JDD)