A review of the difficulties Spanish-Americans and Mexican-Americans encounter in learning English, caused by a lack of knowledge of common idioms and figures of speech in current usage, leads to a discussion of two pilot studies in which the frequency of occurrence of idiomatic and figurative constructions in the reading materials presented to…

The School and Home Enrichment Program for Severely Handicapped Children includes 332 activities. Focus is on the development of sensory responsiveness, eating skills, fine motor skills, gross motor skills, expressive language, receptive language, personal hygiene, dressing, and social interaction that can be used by parents or teachers as a…

Describes a successful English writing program for Navajo kindergarten children in Ganado Primary School (Arizona), which encourages children to draw and write in journals. Indicates that many Navajo students enter school with the capacity to move directly into daily writing and have already formed strong concepts about written language. (MH)

The language of severely subnormal children was studied in several experiments; problems of testing and analysis were discussed. Attempts were also made to study facial expression as a part of communication. (See TM 504 595 for availability). (Author/CTM)

Forty Dutch individuals (ages 2-34) with Rubinstein-Taybi syndrome were tested using an extensive battery of intelligence, social competency, temperament, behavior, articulation, and receptive and expressive language measures. Results indicated that intelligence level was usually low and individuals were remarkably consistent in their social…

Evaluation of a collaborative service delivery model involving a speech-language pathologist and regular teachers of two inner city primary grade classrooms found that, in comparison to standard practice control classrooms, experimental students showed superior gains in receptive vocabulary, expressive vocabulary, beginning sound awareness, and…

Purpose: To evaluate the effectiveness of a screening instrument (the Swedish Communication Screening at 18 months of age; SCS18), derived from the Swedish MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory, in identification of 18-month-old children who will be severely language disabled by 3 years of age, the authors (a) analyzed which SCS18's…

The study investigates strategies and contexts for supporting the literacy development of young, augmented speakers, whose difficulties in literacy learning are not explained by their levels of cognition alone. Indeed, quantitative and qualitative differences exist in their literacy experiences at home and school. In this study, four primary…

This study explored two aspects of language expression (defining words and repeating sentences) in samples of 26 Downs Syndrome (DS) and 26 mentally handicapped (MH) adolescents and young adults matched on intelligence and chronological age. Testing included language tests, a comprehensive audiological assessment, and computer-based memory…

The Educational Sign Skills Evaluation (ESSE) was developed to provide a means of identifying the dominant signing style of an individual and to provide feedback on areas of strength and areas in need of improvement. It provides an overall expressive skills rating as well as information on the type, level, and degree of understanding demonstrated…

An analysis of the use of attenuation (structural or semantic softening of the speech act) and sentence structure in elicited speech acts by normally developing, learning disabled, and developmentally delayed populations is presented. In the normally developing population (1) the development of attenuation strategies is different from structural…

The third of five volumes (and the second of the four curriculum guides) of Project Teach 'n' Reach, a program to help regular classroom teachers teach nondisabled students about disabilities, deals with communication handicaps. The curriculum addresses the following issues under the topic of hearing impairments: anatomical structures of the ear,…

The phrasebook, designed for newly-arrived Hungarian residents in the United States, contains English phrases in 19 units covering a wide range of situations and introducing the daily activities of American life. They are presented in the form of two-line dialogues, are grouped by subject, and are selected for their directness, brevity, and…

A discussion of the types and uses of stories in second language instruction argues that the inclination to narrate is an omnipresent human phenomenon, whether attributed to nature or to culture. The story is a means of self-expression and communication that describes different forms of narrative, both literary and nonliterary. The uses and…

A study examined the use of a body awareness microcomputer program on young children as a predictor of early reading achievement. Subjects, 58 preschool and kindergarten students (prereaders) from a university laboratory school in the southern region of the United States, were asked to work in the microcomputer center in small groups to identify…