Tested hypothesis that 4- and 5-year-old children in same-sex problem-solving groups would perform equally well when a group task required various cooperative and self-serving behaviors to enable group to obtain a resource. The hypothesis that girls and boys would employ different behaviors to obtain resource was also tested. Participants were 20…

Supports the hypothesis that preschool children produce more private speech during problem solving after they have interacted with a collaborative adult (experienced by them as a competent helper) than after they have interacted with a non-collaborative adult. Conceptualizes private speech both as a reaction to the task and as an indirect appeal…

Sixty minimally verbal autistic children (mean age five years) were exposed to one of four language training conditions: speech alone, sign alone, or simultaneous or alternate presentation of speech and sign. Regardless of training condition, pretreatment verbal imitation ability positively predicted the size of child-initiated spoken vocabulary…

Examined were message-receiving skills of schoolchildren in relation to their mother's messages. Participants were hearing children four, six, and eight years of age and deaf children six to 10 years of age. Findings revealed that mothers achieved high levels of communicative success with their six- and eight-year-old hearing children but…

Three-year-old children and their families were observed during a dinner time situation in which all family members were present. Study results suggest how the mealtime experience, filled with information concerning sex-role behavior, social manners and habits, and interpersonal relations between parents and children, is a central multifaceted…

Private preschool and Head Start teachers' interactive behaviors with children of middle and lower socioeconomic status and with boys and girls were compared. Statistical analyses indicated that teachers of lower SES children had fewer verbal communications with children and more interactions with other adults. (Author/JAZ)

Guidelines for teachers on presenting information clearly to students include: maintain fluency and an adequate pace of information flow; use clear, precise, descriptive language; pause briefly (so that students can "digest" information); and reduce the use of amibiguous terms and "avoidance" phrases (such as "and so on"). (CB)

Discusses three studies which show that the first two of J. Searle's conditions are extremely important to maintain if a promise is to be made or understood. Supports the idea that promises do not by themselves obligate a speaker but are used to reaffirm previously existing, and often unstated, obligations. (NKA)

Outlines a number of barriers in behavioral consultation, including the lack of standardization of consultation, lack of specific training of consultants, little or no consultee (teacher) training, problems surrounding target behavior identification, and external constraints to consultation. Each area is described along several dimensions that…

Male and female trainees in family therapy saw 22 intact 2-parent families with referred adolescents. Mothers, fathers, adolescents, and therapists were rated for verbal expression in affective, behavioral, and cognitive/attributional modes. Results suggest that therapist gender has impact on family therapists' and family members' verbalizations…

Client and counselor perceptions of empathy were examined at different stages in the counseling process, in relation to the verbal response modes used by counselors in 24 client-counselor dyads. Client and counselor perceptions of counselor empathy differed, with clients finding counselors who used fewer general advisements more empathetic.…

Studied the influence of counselor and client sex on relational communication patterns in counseling within a systems theory framework using audiotaped intake interviews of 36 counselors. Both counselor sex and and client sex were significant factors in participants' perceptions of each other during the intake. (JAC)

Results of individaul evaluations of four classes of medical students' (N=213) performance in a communication and interview skills curriculum were synthesized using methods typically used in literary meta-analytic reviews. Results showed a significant positive effect. Implications for program evaluation are discussed. (JAC)

Recent empirical findings have challenged Vygotsky's theory regarding the self-regulatory functions of children's private speech. This study hypothesized that semantic tasks and instructions to talk out loud would maximize private speech production. Results supported Vygotsky's notion that private speech does not disappear with age but "goes…

A controlled experiment studying effects of adding voice-over sound to a silent electronic text service tested program acceptability and memory retention. Results indicate no significant differences in ratings for acceptability although the test for memory retention resulted in significantly higher scores for the sound group on recall and…