The present study involved the evaluation of the effectiveness of four types of preschool programs on the educational development of lower and middle class children. Middle class children were exposed to "unit" and "cognitive" based preschool programs; lower class children were exposed to "day care" and Montessori…

"How does a child come to be able to relate his own experience to the formal means of communicating about that experience in the language to which he is exposed?" The author maintains that the innate predispositions that underlie the development of the cognitive ability to organize and structure experience also underlie the acquisition of the…

This paper provides a sociolinguistic discussion of the language situation in Israel, based on relevant linguistic and Hebraic literature and on the author's two year visit to the area. The author discusses the background and use of the many different languages spoken in the country; the function of each language is described. Characteristics of…

This paper focuses on the two main schools of thought concerning the structure of Black English and its relationship to other dialects. One approach is that of the social dialectologists who claim that Black English shares features and origins of white non-standard Southern speech; the frequency with which specific features occur in actual speech…

Most of the articles in this book were selected because they offer something of immediate practical value to those engaged in work with young children. Written by teachers who describe their own experiences with children and parents, the articles originally appeared in the periodical "Young Children." The present volume is divided into the…

Some insight into the relationship between language and thought can be achieved through a comparison between American Sign Language and English. This paper discusses several studies on this topic and defines some of the problems. The author feels that the deaf using American Sign Language cannot be considered linguistically deficient. A structural…

Brief annotations of currently available language development measures appropriate for use with preschool children as well as with lower elementary grade children (grades 1 through 3) are presented. The annotation provides information concerning the purpose of the test; the groups for which it is intended; test subdivisions or tested skills,…

This textbook for preschool teachers is geared to the needs of the young and relatively inexperienced teacher. The book combines developmental and educational theory with practical application. Chapters cover: (1) early education as a career; (2) schools and systems of early education; (3) school and family: partners or competitors?; (4) social…

This article discusses preschool education and the research conducted in that field on various relevant topics in an effort to establish recommendations and programs. Cognitive development is the main issue and is seen as a product of maturation as well as of a broad base of experience which results from interaction between the mind and the…

Kindergarten age children were screened at pre-registration through extensive diagnostic procedures for placement in a class designed for normal children with developmental delays staffed by a Special Education teacher and language therapist. Instruction was prescriptive and individualized. Of the twelve children who were high risk failures at the…

This unit of the Flexible Learning System (FLS), designed for teachers of children aged 4-8, introduces the concept of psychological integration and its application to language curriculum in early childhood education. Techniques for helping children use and extend their personal experiences in language arts activities are described, and the use of…

This selective bibliography cites recent ERIC documents and journal articles focusing on Piagetian theory, research and practice. Entries include title, author and descriptors. Also included are an abstract and ordering information for each ERIC document and an annotation and journal citation for each journal article. Entries are drawn from…

This study investigated the relationship between dialect usage and performance on four language tasks designed to reflect features developmental in nature: articulation, grammatical closure, auditory discrimination, and sentence comprehension. Predictor and criterion language tasks were administered to 90 kindergarten, first-, and second-grade…

Urges education systems and schools to make special efforts to inform and work with parents in the establishment of a literacy assessment program so that children with special needs in literacy could receive as much attention as those who achieve. (NKA)

Three discourse-related formal aspects of model-imitation pairs were analyzed longitudinally in successive samples from two Hungarian children. Results revealed an unbroken developmental trend leading to lexically coherent conversational replies and that imitation aided the children in learning the lexicon, making phonological approximations of…