Rates of development for children who recover from early language delay and those with persistent problems were compared. Eighty-seven language-impaired children were assessed at the ages of 4, 4 1/2, and 5 1/2 years. The two groups were distinguished in initial level of performance but not in rate of progress. (Author/DB)

Various techniques of treatment are discussed in this case study of a young child who refused to talk. (ST)

Comparison of dysphasic children (N=8) with control children found that the dysphasic children's language development was both delayed and deviant, and that the children's deviant syntax structures were the result of insufficient language processing and could not be traced back to structural characteristics of the sentences used by their mothers.…

The paper reports data from four studies using the Language Development Survey (LDS), a screening tool for the identification of language delay in two-year-old children. The LDS was found to have excellent sensitivity and specificity. Prevalence data using the LDS are reported, comparing three different severity cutoffs. (Author/DB)

Although the language delayed and normal speaking children showed equivalent linguisitic sophistication (as measured by mean length of utterance), the language delayed children's control of the acoustic-phonetic details of the voicing contrast was less mature than that of the normal speaking children. (Author/PHR)

The training study was designed to use the developmentally appropriate communicative intention of protest as a vehicle for teaching request for object to one 3-year-old language delayed preverbal child. Results revealed that with a specific intervention model the S learned to gesturally, vocally, and verbally express the communication intention…

Perinatal histories and developmental data for the first year of life were examined for 46 children who failed a screening test for use by nonprofessional interviewers in the home situation for evaluation of language and speech development in 3-year-old children. (Author/KW)

The findings of language development studies in normally developing children (from birth to school age) and in children who deviate from the norm in physiological and cognitive development are outlined and compared. (LH)

Examined were the home verbal environments of three multiply handicapped language impaired children (3, 6, and 8 years old). Each child wore an FM transmitter-microphone for 3 1/2 consecutive days. Prliminary analysis of the acoustic data was in terms of actual data time, parental lesson time, and number of engaged (verbal interactions) and…

This newsletter issue contains four articles all addressing aspects of intervention with infants and toddlers having communication disorders. The first, "Assessing the Communication of Infants and Toddlers: Integrating a Socioemotional Perspective" (Barry M. Prizant and Amy M. Wetherby) describes a new instrument, the Communication and Symbolic…

This study found that naturalistic conversation training improved the spontaneous speech production of two children (ages three and four) with speech production disabilities. (Author/DB)