This study investigated how at-risk kindergarten students respond to the identification of letters and sounds using an embedded picture mnemonic intervention. The problem addressed was that kindergarten students face challenges in developing letter-name knowledge, letter-sound knowledge, and their reciprocal relationship (i.e., grapheme-phoneme…

Picture books are a common staple of children's reading diet. The role of pictures in reading acquisition, however, remains a topic of considerable controversy. To examine the effect of pictures on second graders' (N=40) oral reading behavior and comprehension, this study used a 2 (picture condition) x 2 (genre) x 3 (reading ability) mixed ANOVA…

Children with Down syndrome exhibit unique learning characteristics that impact their educational progress. Despite this, research on effective reading interventions specifically tailored for this population remains limited. The present study aimed to find the best ways to teach teaching foundational reading skills to children with Down syndrome.…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) who have limited spoken communication skills are commonly taught to mand by exchanging picture symbols. Competent manding via symbol exchange relies on conditional discrimination--that is, selecting the picture symbol that corresponds to the desired reinforcer. Picture Exchange Communication System…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often demonstrate difficulty communicating with others, and this may impact the extent to which they can engage in language during play. Previous researchers have used interventions to increase commenting during play with caregivers, siblings, and adult play partners. In these previous studies,…

Matching related stimuli is a foundational skill upon which a wide variety of critical repertoires are constructed. For learners with complex communication needs, including many children with autism, learned relations between pictorial stimuli and their referents are the basis for communication (Andzik et al., 2017; Crowe et al., 2021).…

The present study used a multiple probe across behaviors design, with an embedded alternating treatments design to compare the effects of two modified communication systems, the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) and a speech generating device, on requesting for a child with multiple disabilities, including autism and visual impairments.…

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience difficulties sharing past experiences. The ability to share past experiences is first developed through joint-reminiscing conversations between caregiver and child. In this study I conducted a secondary analysis of a single-case dataset to evaluate the collateral effects of family…

The present dissertation intends to investigate the syntactic nature and L2-acquisition of passive sentence structure in two Romance varieties, Italian and Spanish. First, I will present an analytic proposal couched within the Generative Approach (Chomsky, 1957, and subsequent work); from there, and following Perlmutter and Postal's (1977)…

Previous research has shown a relationship between robust neural encoding of speech by the auditory brainstem and children's phonological abilities. Two areas of brainstem encoding this work has included are the ABR dimensions of consistency, or how similar responses are to a repeated stimulus, and differentiation, or the degree to which responses…

Minority languages in diglossic situations with a majority language face the danger of eventual loss of vitality. The first sign of this is when child language acquisition begins to erode. This dissertation investigates the intergenerational transmission of the Isan language, spoken in the Northeastern region of Thailand. While the Isan community…

Reading difficulties during childhood often continue during adulthood and result in adverse effects (e.g., unemployment, poverty). A common method to teach early literacy skills is via multisensory instructional programs, which use combinations of mnemonic devices, such as visual, auditory, tactile, and kinesthetic movements. The current…

The present study sought to evaluate trial designs and training designs that are commonly used in popular commercially available computer-assisted language-learning (CALL) programs. The first two experiments (Experiment 1a and 1b) compared the effects of passive viewing and active student response methods in vocabulary learning. Contingencies on…

This dissertation studies the acquisition of Mandarin relative clauses (RCs), including the distributional pattern of different RC types in adult child-directed speech (study 1) and four-year-old Mandarin-speaking children's comprehension of different RC types (study 2). An RC is a subordinate clause that modifies a noun and is embedded within a…

Nawat, the highly endangered indigenous language of El Salvador, is undergoing a revitalization process. This dissertation, conceived within this context, focuses on the second-language (L2) acquisition of features of Nawat pronunciation by learners who have Salvadoran Spanish as their first language (L1). Specifically, I assess the acquisition of…