Investigates the effects of an expanded Language Experience Approach (LEA) on emergent literacy skills of 44 kindergartners. Results indicate that the expanded LEA is more effective than the traditional LEA for the development of listening comprehension skills in kindergartners. (RJC)

A framework for staff development which focuses on acquisition of pedagogical language is presented as a means to increase teachers' cognitive complexity about the teaching-learning process. The language and concepts found in educational theory and research are key factors in enabling teachers' reflective instructional decision making. (JD)

Examination of the speech of eight mothers and eight fathers to their one- to two-year-olds (N=8) indicated that, while paternal speech was not more diverse than maternal speech, paternal speech did show greater use of rare vocabulary and lower use of common vocabulary. (Author/CB)

Cross-linguistic investigation of the importance of syntactic cues and cue processing cost in French and Spanish four through six-year-olds' sentence comprehension revealed that topological cues helped French subjects most, while local cues helped Spanish subjects most. (Author/CB)

Reports on a study which examined the relationship between young children's language development and their tonal and rhythm performance of rote songs with and without words. Suggests that, since no relationship was found, two mental processes may be necessary for learning; one for audiation, and another for learning the words of the song. (LS)

The followup study of 15 autistic and 14 dysphasic boys at middle childhood found that few of the autistic boys had developed good language skills; that the autistic group remained stable in its general characteristics; and that many of the dysphasic boys showed problems in peer relations. (DB)

Eleven preschool children with Down Syndrome were taught new words/graphic symbols (Rebus or modified Bliss) using various treatment conditions. Incorporation of graphic symbols into language intervention programs may facilitate language acquisition, provided the tasks and procedures are appropriate to the child's developmental age and level of…

Researches the extent to which attrition is the reverse of the language acquisition process by studying the German case system. The Linguistic Hypothesis (based on the notion of regression) and the Cognitive Hypothesis (based on the assumption that there is a tendency to establish one-to-one correspondence between function and morphological case…

Forty-eight preschool-age children were administered the Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children-Nonverbal Scale and the Wechsler Preschool and Primary Scale of Intelligence (WPPSI) Performance Scale. Pearson product-moment correlations between the two scales ranged from .59 for a language-delayed group to .79 for the entire sample. Subjects…

Four adults and 16 five-year-olds were asked to repeat words that differed in voicing of initial and final stop consonants and then to respond to revision requests. Children and adults decreased vowel duration and increased final closure duration in revised speech, regardless of the source of miscomprehension. (Author/JDD)

A longitudinal study of four 17- to 33-month-olds revealed that their linguistic selection at the one-word stage was governed by principles of informativeness, while the two-word stage was characterized by new, or a combination of new and old, information. (Author/CB)

Introduces the common theme among the papers presented in this issue, the development of working memory. Underlines the two different approaches presented. The neo-Piagetian perspective attempts to capitalize on the insights of Piaget's work by proposing information-processing accounts of cognitive development. The second perspective stems from…

Presents case study of first congenitally deaf British infant to receive multichannel cochlear implant. Used video analysis of achievement of audio objectives to detail pre- and postimplantation phases. Results demonstrated the importance of gesture in transition to written language; benefit of early identification, amplification, and referral for…

A bilingual child's development of word order in German and English subordinate clauses was followed between age 3 and 5, and a number of diversions from the development of word order in such clauses by monolingual children was noted. (Contains five references.) (Author/LB)

The development of a new parent report instrument, Inventario del Desarollo de Habilidades Communicativas, is reported and 5 studies carried out with the instrument for 328 children aged 8 months to 2 years/7 months are presented. Among the findings are similar trajectories of development for Spanish- and English-speaking children and for children…