This study, with 30 language learning-disabled, reading-disabled, and normal primary school children, found that clause structure complexity, fluency, and grammatical and phonemic accuracy tended to be highest when children were discussing absent referents, providing explanations and stories, and giving unshared information. These effects were…

Ear infections are common and hinder hearing during potentially crucial ages for language learning. Instructors can promote hygiene in the classroom, identify signs of infection and hearing loss and initiate early treatment, provide care for symptoms, improve the acoustic environment, encourage language learning, and beware of interference with…

Over a 2-year period, observed the play of 6 mentally handicapped children who were 2-3 years old at the start of the study. Measured children's behaviors that related to displacing objects, finding and locating objects, and using language. Found that the sequence of the children's development of object knowledge and early language was similar to…

First-hand experience of artworks and natural and made objects increases young children's aesthetic awareness as well as giving them a vocabulary to describe them. Discussion helps children understand and extend their powers of imagination, reasoning, and problem solving. (SK)

Discusses the "communication hypothesis" of problem behavior and describes methods for determining the communicative functions served by problem behavior. Reports on application of functional assessment and functional communication training with toddlers. (DB)

Discusses themes that relate to the connections between first- and second-language acquisition. Specific focus is on the following issues: whether there is a language instinct; what input could and does teach the child; rules and representations (i.e., how language resides in the individual); individual differences in language acquisition; and…

Investigated personal storytelling among young working-class and middle-class children, observing them at home at age 2; age 6 and 3; and under-one year. Analysis of generic properties, narrative content, and emotion talk revealed a complex configuration of similarities and differences. Differentiation between working-class and middle-class…

Investigated whether children age 2; age 0-2; and 2 years used grammatical and caregiver cues in sentence comprehension and how different types of cues interacted. Children listened to sentences and identified pictures. Results indicated that children used caregiver cues (e.g., short length and position of key words) in sentence comprehension.…

This historical article from 1887 describes the communication limitations faced by individuals with deafness, argues that sign language does not lead to clannishness among people with deafness, and discusses the benefits of sign language in allowing such individuals free and unconstrained social intercourse. (CR)

Discusses two questions in consideration of theoretical interactionist approaches and analyses of communication practices among kindergartners: (1) how are various socialization contexts different?; and (2) how do young children adapt to them? Presents a discussion on a pedagogy of oral language with young children. (DSK)

Comments on studies that indicate delayed onset of canonical babbling may predict future language impairments. It cautions against the too-early assumption of the use of early perceptual and production capacities as clinical markers and warns that using lack of canonical babbling as a early index of language delay could lead to a high rate of…

To test hypothesis that young children may be open to learning non-SVO structures with novel transitive verbs, 12 children in each of three age groups (2-year olds, 3-year olds, and 4-year olds) were taught novel verbs, one in each of three sentence positions: medial, final, and initial. Results suggest English-speaking children's acquisition of a…

Examines the relationship between third-person-singular subject pronoun case and agreement, focusing on the hypothesis that these two grammatical subsystems develop together. Twenty-nine children between ages 2 and 4 years of age were each audiotaped for approximately two hours playing and interacting with their primary caregivers. (Author/VWL)

Presents the linguistic characteristics of a boy (AZ) with specific language impairment. AZ illustrates the linguistic characteristics of grammatical SLI. Morphosyntactic investigations reveal that all inflectional forms are present but are not used consistently. (Author/VWL)

This study compared phonological patterns in the speech of 25 children prenatally exposed to cocaine and multiple drugs and with 25 non-exposed children (all children ages 22 to 51 months). Prenatal exposure to drugs was associated with an increase in the use of phonological processes. Results suggest that these children's speech development is…