A study involving 21 toddlers who were late talkers investigated the effects of early language intervention on various linguistic and social skills. Results indicated those who received early intervention demonstrated increased complexity, increased verbal output, higher lexical diversity, and improved intelligibility of spontaneous speech and…

Examined preschoolers' understanding that a statement's surface meaning may differ from actual meaning. Found that even 3-year-olds rejected a lie-teller's statement as reflecting his true beliefs and knowledge, indicating basic expression-representation differentiation. Found that most 4- and 5-year-olds and some 3-year-olds knew that a lie may…

Evaluation of the verbal interactions, especially maternal directives, among three mothers and their young blind children indicated that counting single occurrences of directives ignores the possible adaptive role that directive sequences may have in conversational interactions with blind children. (Contains references.) (Author/DB)

Developed taxonomy of eight types of negation found in children's narratives, and examined children's personal narratives and narratives elicited by picture books. Found most frequent negation to be reference to actions that did not happen. Younger children used negation more than older children, and negation occurred more frequently in personal…

Investigated whether sustained forms of nonverbal coordinated action facilitates toddlers' generation of verbal discourse with one another. Twenty-four 2-year-olds interacted with an adult, in 2 nonverbal interactive contexts: an imitation game and parallel play. Found that involvement in nonverbal imitation games facilitated toddlers responding…

A study investigated whether 32 adolescents with reading disabilities (RD) were slower at processing visual information compared to children of comparable age and reading level, or whether their deficit was specific to the written word. Adolescents with RD demonstrated difficulties in processing rapidly presented verbal and nonverbal visual…

Discusses student hearing problems and ways schools can help to reduce hearing difficulties in the classroom through use of classroom amplification technology. Explores the benefits of sound amplification systems for both students and teachers. (GR)

Discusses gaps between traditional and virtual organizational environments and suggests that electronic communication training is necessary to lessen the chance for unclear messages, to enhance faceless interactions, and avoid communication overload. Topics include interpersonal skills; verbal and nonverbal communication competencies; written…

Examines the relation between therapist verbal response mode and client good moments to provide information about the process of a short-term dynamic psychotherapy (STDP). Analyses revealed a significant association between therapist verbal responses and the subsequent occurrence of good client moments. (Contains 60 references and 4 tables.) (GCP)

Presents a study in which experimental manipulation of combinations of nonverbal and verbal immediacy allowed researchers to more precisely test these causal links in relation to recall, learning loss, and affective learning. Notes that higher verbal immediacy in the experimental manipulations, when combined with higher and lower nonverbal…

Researchers have noted that one of the key skills critical to proficient teaching is verbal questioning. With teachers asking about 300 to 400 questions per day and, depending on the type of lesson, as many as 120 questions per hour, it is essential that they be skilled in using verbal questioning. Unfortunately, researchers studying teachers' use…

Most studies about students' conceptions and conceptual change are based exclusively on the analysis language, which is treated as a tool to make private contents of the mind public to researchers. Following recent studies that focused on (a) language and discursive practice and (b) the pragmatics of communication that draws on talk, gestures, and…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of a prompt versus no prompt condition in combination with a peer-directed intervention package that targeted children with low language or behavior problems. The current study (a) tested two conditions of a multi-component intervention package to increase social interaction between peers, and…

The STAT is an interactive screening measure for autism that assesses behaviors in the areas of play, communication, and imitation skills. In Study 1, signal detection procedures were employed to identify a cutoff score for the STAT using developmentally matched groups of 2-year-old children with autism and with nonspectrum disorders. The…

This experiment examined children's and undergraduates' verbal and nonverbal deceptive behavior, and the extent to which their truths and lies could be correctly classified by paying attention to these responses. Participants (N = 196) aged 5-6, 10-11, and 14-15, as well as university undergraduates, participated in an erasing the blackboard…