Notes that three papers and commentary (in this issue) emphasized importance of including data on manual modality when studying language development and its relationship to other domains. Discusses advantages of using robustness analysis rather than precursor relations to study domain relations. Suggests alternative theoretical context to which…

The effect of adding time for processing compressed speech and the effects of questions that gave adjunct pictures either a redundant or contextual function were investigated. Subjects were 144 fourth- and fifth-grade students randomly assigned to 24 groups. They listened individually to a 20-sentence story at either 225 or 300 words-per-minute…

When first, fourth, and fifth grade speakers played a referential communication game with a fictitious listener, they were more likely to give redundant messages to listeners with whom they had no common shared experience or to strangers than to listeners with whom they had shared a previous experience. (RH)

Investigates whether first- and fourth-grade children vary their production of redundant messages (saying more than the minimal necessary to be informative) as a function of sharing common experience with a listener. (HOD)