Research Findings: The present study investigates both the proximal processes and contextual influences on children's oral language development in preschool. We examine whether teacher language practices vary across activity settings and program type, which teacher language practices predict children's oral language skills, and potential…

Mixed methods were used to study the impact of the Project Approach, a curriculum component that can engage and motivate children to participate in learning activities, on the play behaviors and language development of preschoolers. Participants included 4 children with disabilities and 4 children identified as at-risk. Six adults received support…

This collection of exercises, intended principally for parents and teachers engaged in early childhood education, contains 30 pages of exercises designed to foster speech and vocabulary development of young children. Although the book is primarily intended for use with native speakers of French, the exercises would be useful for elementary school…

Concludes that it is time for teachers to be more critical of the commercial materials and classroom practices commonly used to sensitize children to different semantic cues and morphological units. Argues that without a firm knowledge of context clues and morphemes on the part of teachers, the teaching of these skills will remain incidental. (FL)

Noting that young children learn to talk at different ages but within certain developmental boundaries, this document presents two charts to help parents facilitate their toddler's speech. The first chart lists characteristics to look for in a growing, healthy baby at various ages between 3 months and 24 months, and suggestions for when to talk to…

This collection of over 100 games and activities is intended to increase oral proficiency among Spanish-speaking children without requiring reading skills. The collection grew out of the desire to provide remedies for specific linguistic weaknesses in English as identified by the Language Assessment Scales (LAS). Because tongue twisters, riddles…

Like its English counterpart, this is a collection of over 100 games and activities whose intent is to increase oral proficiency without requiring reading skills. The collection grew out of the desire to provide remedies for specific linguistic weaknesses in Spanish as identified by the Language Assessment Scales. Because tongue twisters, riddles,…