Twenty-eight mothers and their preschool children with developmental delays were observed during a storybook activity. The more responsive and engaged the child, the more the mother attempted to involve the child in the book activity. Mothers generally appeared to be sensitive to their children's developmental levels. (Author/DB)

Systems concepts from general systems theory and family therapy literature are presented as analytical tools to help professionals understand and change interactions with their clients having communication disorders. Two case examples that illustrate relationship problems are presented, and approaches taken to their resolution are described.…

The introduction to this special issue on interactive assessment and special needs children draws a distinction between the term "interactive assessment" and the more limited "dynamic assessment," and comments that the six papers comprising this issue focus on dynamic assessment, in which there is actual teaching of cognitive…

This article examines how an optimal interpersonal exchange between caregiver and infant occurs, including factors that promote developmental skills, heighten rapport with the caregiver, and elicit optimism about the future. The process of "previewing," in which caregivers make predictions concerning their infants' imminent developmental…

Compares the Group Valence Model (GVM) to several derived versions of the Valence Distribution Model (VDM), as they relate to the group problem-solving process. Suggests that, not withstanding predictive accuracy, the VDM seems generally inferior to the GVM, which consistently accounts for more of the decision-making phenomenon. Discusses…

Investigated young children's social interactions with a baby in a group care setting. Observations of young children as they responded to an infant revealed differences in comforting, sharing, and cooperation according to age and sex. Also, toddlers' social interactions with the infant increased after the infant reached 18 months of age, and…

Analysis of videotapes of training procedures with 12 developmentally disabled adults in a horticultural day work program found an overall staff emphasis on selectively attending to workers' successful behavior with evidence of both efficiency and effectiveness of this approach. (Author/DB)

This study, involving 40 young siblings of either handicapped or nonhandicapped children, found that siblings of handicapped children engaged in more parallel and social play and were more nurturing with their siblings than were control children. Mothers were more likely to deliver commands, directives, and reprimands to siblings of handicapped…

This observational study of three preschool children with profound disabilities in an integrated setting revealed frequent opportunities for peer social interactions and indicated that subjects engage in interactions of comparable length to those of nondisabled peers. The importance of helping young nondisabled children understand and respond to…

Dialogues between hearing mothers and their prelinguistic hearing-impaired (n=3) or normally hearing (n=7) infants were analyzed. Mothers of hearing-impaired infants contributed a greater percent of dyadic topic initiations than did other mothers. No group differences were found in responsiveness of mothers or infants. (Author/DB)

Describes the development and organization of the Colt (Communicative Orientation of Language Teaching) observation scheme and Lyster and Ranta's (1997) error treatment model, instruments including predetermined categories to describe features of instructional input and interaction in second language classrooms. Concludes that the choice of…

Discusses potential problems and advantages of assessing grammatical competence from production data from interactional contexts. Argues that regardless of difficulties in assessing grammatical competence in interactional contexts, the types of interactions change with time, as the interlanguage grammar develops. (9 references) (Author/CK)

Scrutinizes an academic lecture in the subsequent question and answer period in order to decompose the speech roles associated with this speech event and to increase understanding of the factors influencing the participants and the event in order to design a useful framework for language teaching. (14 references) (Adjunct ERIC Clearinghouse for…

This article on childrens' interactive talking books examines: (1) how pairs of children interact when using the Broderbund multimedia CD-ROM storybook "Living Books"; (2) whether their patterns of interaction reflect the gender composition of the pair; and (3) if different types of pairs interact differently and remember the activity differently.…

This study observed the social/cognitive play of 46 young children who were deaf or hard of hearing (D/HH). With D/HH partners, children engaged primarily in constructive play, but in groups that included both D/HH and hearing partners, they engaged most frequently in dramatic play. Results suggest that group play varies according to the hearing…