This paper argues that the writing process consists of perception, recognition of the limits and resources of language, and development of the ability to capitalize on the resources of language to express our perceptions at any given moment. Perception includes two essential aspects of good writing, specific detail and interpretation of the…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate both the relative effectiveness of different instructional personnel and the effect of differences in group size upon oral language acquisition for educationally disadvantaged first grade children. Involved in the treatment program were 23 classes in eight schools, all serving lower class areas of a…

The author reviews the literature and considers clinical implications of three issues in language and cognition: the relationship between language and cognition, the strategies children use in the language-learning task, and the cognitive determinants of what children say. Examined are questions (such as whether cognitive skills are dependent on…

An explanation of the child's mind and his language, stated in terms of the nature of the learner, is presented in this book. The authors ask teachers to think about the competence of the child and try to discover what he must know to be able to read. They ask teachers to examine the nature of the learner--what he knows that enables him to learn…

Presented is the final report (1971-72) of San Diego's Zoo Project for Handicapped Children, designed to increase the language arts skills of 870 trainable or educable mentally handicapped or educationally handicapped children through the use of animals as motivating devices. The program included a teacher training program enabling teachers to…

This panel discussion seeks to determine the role of babbling and of nonlinguistic behavior in language acquisition. A central question is whether there is a continuity between babbling and speech. The paper presents the views that: the infant's ability to assimilate and adapt to his environment antedates the maturation of his visual and auditory…

This paper reports on an experiment designed to collect data on children's perception and use of semantic attributes. Forty-five children ranging in age from 2 years 8 months to 6 years were given a picture test involving judgment of similarities between objects. The test consisted of 47 groups of pictures; each group contained a stimulus or a…

This paper reviews work done since January 1972 in children's language acquisition and development. It is divided into the following sections: (1) a brief summary of descriptive studies of adult and child speech, (2) a review of the results of three types of manipulative studies, and (3) a discussion of J. Gruber's interpretation of early…

Analysis of the questions asked by normal children suggests that there are cognitive stages of question development. Samples of spontaneous questions asked by normal children and linguistically deviant children were compared in this study in order to determine if linguistically deviant (aphasic) children suffer primarily from a syntactic…

Perception and production data were collected from 28 children, ages 1 year 8 months to 3 years 11 months to test four specific hypotheses on the acquisition of initial fricatives and glides in English, based on the assumptions that perception precedes production and unmarked precedes marked. Perception data were collected by the Shvachkin-Garnica…

A study was conducted to determine the relationship between maternal input to early language learners and language acquisition and to answer the following questions: (1) Does nursery language used with the child change after he begins to talk? (2) Is there reason to believe that the child's speech is influenced by or influences the mother's…

Thirty-one papers and reports dealing with recent work on language input to children are listed in this annotated bibliography. The annotations, which are descriptive rather than evaluative, summarize the design of each study, the nature of the data, and some of the results and conclusions. Entries by P. Broen, J. Bynon, L. Cherry, J. M. Crawford,…

One of the twelve exemplary programs summarized in the Introduction to Right to Read's "Effective Reading Programs: Summaries of 222 Selected Programs" (CS001934), this program serves disadvantaged, inner-city preschool children who score at or below the twenty-fifth percentile on a preschool inventory. Children attend kindergarten for…

This paper reviews literature on subcultural differences in language development to find out what the literature suggests about the nature of a language program for lower class 4-year-olds. The following conclusions are reached: (1) differences in syntactic and phonological competence are not important barriers to communication for the lower class…

English and Navajo language materials are described in this annotated bibliography of reading materials which is part of the Navajo Reading Study funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The English language materials were developed to teach Navajo children about their own culture and could be used to form the base for a curriculum in English for…