Examines the techniques used by Anne Sullivan in helping Helen Keller to overcome her learning difficulties. (DD)

Various criteria are presented for selecting the first words to be taught to a child with a language disorder. (Author)

The paper presents a symptom approach for the intervention of childhood language disorders. Intervention guidelines are presented in the following areas of functioning: two-word utterances, auxiliaries, grammatical structures, auditory comprehension, discourse, and symbolic play. Behavioral analysis, rather than etiological classification, forms…

Four autistic or autisticlike preschoolers participated in a study which indicated the effectiveness of sequential implementation of imbedded instruction rather than tutoring on enhancing the acquisition of yes/no responses. (CL)

The article examines children's requests for clarification (RQCLs) in sections on the development of RQCL behaviors in normally developing children, the use of RQCL behaviors by language-impaired children, evaluation of language-impaired children's use of RQCL behaviors, and facilitation of language impaired children's use of and response to…

Four language disordered children (3 to 4-years-old) were taught such subject properties as agreement morphemes, nominative case, and question inversion by learning first subject function and then subject properties, suggesting that functional theory of language has diagnostic and treatment implications for language disordered children. (Author/DB)

Forty-four language delayed preschoolers received either direct instruction or interactive instruction. After 8 months, children in both settings improved significantly and substantially on syntactic and semantic measures. There were no differences between the two groups at posttest nor any significant aptitude by treatment interactions for…

Meaningful activities are described that are designed to elicit five language functions normally required in relating socially in school settings while stating personal needs; directing the actions of self and others; giving information; reasoning; judging, and predicting; and imagining and projecting into nonclassroom situations. (Author/CL)

Four language disordered children (4 to 9 years old) were presented with a four-step program designed to achieve generalization of target grammatical rules to spontaneous discourse. Trained target rules increased in frequency while untrained rules did not. (Author)

The case study of a language handicapped 4-year-old presents a framework for assessing and managing a child who displayed a marked deficit in his verbal requests for objects, actions, and information. (Author/SW)

The article discusses several linguistic and nonlinguistic teaching strategies to foster language acquisition and increase spontaneous language in preschool children with language delays. Techniques include having the child complete unfinished sentences and intentionally violating an expected routine to elicit the child's language. (DB)

The article looks at syntactic deficiencies involving simple clause structures and grammatical morphology in young children. A framework for understanding the development of simple clause structures is presented followed by a discussion of the correlates of early syntactic development. Procedures to assess and remediate syntactic deficiencies are…

Two language-delayed children (three-four years old) received comprehension instruction on preposition-object phrases using a miniature linguistic system format to structure generalization. Results indicated generalization not only to untreated two-word combinations but also to comprehension of four-word phrases. In addition, there was some…

The paper discusses some principles derived from the normal language development process that could be incorporated into a naturalistic approach for facilitating early language development in language delayed children. (SB)

The guide describes communication games--simple, noncompetitive structured activities designed to promote conversational and linguistic skills in children with language delays and language disabilities. The approach is distinguished from traditional approaches by the creation of a genuine need for talking rather than arbitrary demands, emphasis on…