Language play occurs when people manipulate language in some way, often for fun and always for impact. Alliteration, unexpected vocabulary, phrases that deliberately provoke thought each have impact and appear in all types of writing, whether factual, literary or persuasive. Language play is evident throughout life too: from simple word repetition…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which the efficacy of the Teaching Early Literacy and Language (TELL) curriculum package for low-income preschoolers was impacted by participant characteristics and variables associated with implementation. In a follow-up to a randomized controlled trial (Gray et al., 2024), data was…

This study used a design experiment that instructs children on how to approach each letter to investigate typography design methodologies and manual techniques. Since children are still in the early stages of learning and the content they are exposed to is of great significance, the topic of children's education is always one that the entire…

In the current study, we describe a study of the Internet-based Parent-implemented Communication Strategies-Storybook (i-PiCSS). I-PiCSS is an intervention program designed to train and coach parents to use evidence-based naturalistic communication teaching (NCT) strategies (i.e., modeling, mand-model, and time delay) and reading techniques while…

This paper aims to investigate to what extent preschoolers' narrative speech can be affected by the combined use of five narrative elements: narrative framing, narrative basic structure, intertextual hero, plot subversion and image-text interaction. It presents an intervention aiming to teach these elements to an experimental group of…

Children on the autism spectrum often have deficits in language development. Given the resources required to provide intensive intervention services, either in person or via telehealth, it may be important to maximize instructional time by using procedures that lead to generative language use, such as matrix training. Matrix training involves…

This article aims to explore the conditions for children's language and literacy learning in 153 Swedish preschools with children one to five years. The Early Childhood Environment Rating Scale (ECERS-3) is used to evaluate preschool quality, focusing on the subscale of Language and literacy activities. The study draws on Bronfenbrenner's…

The use of shared book reading is regarded as valuable to support young children to build their oral language and emergent literacy skills in preschool classrooms. Quantitative and qualitative features of early childhood teachers' (ECTs') shared book reading practices are important contributors to quality shared book reading experiences. The aim…

This practical resource explains brain development from prenatal to age 8 with suggestions for activities educators and caregivers can use to foster children's cognitive growth. The authors begin with the basics of brain development, and the issues that affect it, and then provide information specific to infant, toddler, preschool, and…

Purpose: Children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have well-documented verb learning difficulties. In this study, we asked whether the inclusion of retrieval practice during the learning period would facilitate these children's verb learning relative to a similar procedure that provided no retrieval opportunities. Method: Eleven…

Many children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have a vocabulary deficit. One of the most effective interventions for increasing children's lexicon size is the semantic and phonological approach, an approach that has been used mainly with adolescents. The goals of our study are (1) to test whether the semantic-phonological approach…

Peer collaboration benefits second language (L2) learning and is a cornerstone of effective classroom instruction. It is, therefore, essential for teachers to consider how tasks work to promote peer collaboration and thus maximize learning. These considerations concern the task type, a task's inherent characteristics, and possible ways of task…

This study examined the developmental trajectories of Arabic grammatical number in Arabic-English bilingual children. The samples consisted of 80 individuals (40 monolingual children residing in Jordan and 40 bilingual children residing in the USA), aged between 5 and 9 years. Data was collected through two tasks involving picture able objects and…

A Critical Discourse Analysis was used to examine the parents' social practice during shared storybook reading with young children (birth to eight-years-old). The methodology involved two phases: (1) educational databases were searched and (2) a template was developed and used to code the programmes' components and studies' research design.…

Purpose: Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) have multiple roles and responsibilities related to language and literacy instruction in schools. The purpose of this exploratory, qualitative study was to analyze school-based SLPs' perceptions related to effective language and early literacy instruction for pre-K children with developmental language…