Currently 40 percent of those classified as poor are children. The social implications for the educational reform movement require that educators develop programs to confront poverty, health, and family problems. Within the next two decades the majority of students will be ethnically and linguistically diverse, poorer, and more handicapped. (MD)

Two investigations of preschool children's relative dependence upon contextual and linguistic information to discriminate between speech acts revealed that younger subjects' discrimination of each speech act appeared relatively unaffected by reduction of linguistic information, while older subjects' performance was adversely affected. (Author/CB)

This article, which was inspired by results obtained from the use of neighborhood resources as an integral part of children's school learning experiences, presents an approach to social studies for preschool and primary children. (RH)

Describes two studies of word meaning acquisition among children. Concludes that (1) even very young children can learn new words and their meanings on basis of linguistic expressions and in absence of direct experience with referents, and (2) that particular forms of discourse (e.g., narrative and dialogue) can render new meanings more accessible…

The article describes a model for teaching conversational skills to young communicatively handicapped children in the context of everyday activities in the preschool setting. Structured around initiation and participation strategies, intervention emphasizes the interaction of adult teaching and child learning strategies. (JW)

Discusses the development of complex sentence and other language embellishments in preschool children. Emphasizes implications for parents and teachers who facilitate such language development. (BB)

Study examined speech complexity among 22 sets of parents and their school-age children during two time periods approximately one year apart. Parents and children were videotaped while completing a block design task and their conversations were transcribed. Speech patterns were found to differ at the two times. (Author/BN)

A study of the relationship between child abuse/neglect and language disability compared 30 abused, generally neglected, or severely neglected children, aged 3-8, to 10 nonabused controls. Results on language comprehension tests suggest that abused and severely neglected children show greater difficulty with language comprehension tasks than their…

Discusses H. Zobl's paper, "Configurationality and the Subset Principle: The Acquisition of V' by Japanese Learners of English," and asserts that the subset principle, with certain adaptations, can apply to second language learning. In the context of Universal Grammar theory, first and second language acquisition are clearly different.…

The exploratory study examined the effectiveness of the Van Dijk method of developing language skills with four deaf-blind infants and their mothers over a two-month period. Findings indicated increased expressive/elocutionary communicative output with concomitant reduction in self-stimulatory, abusive, and tantrum-like behaviors. (DB)

Reports extensive observations of a whole language program in two first grade classrooms that support whole language instruction. Outlines the advantages and disadvantages of the approach for both students and teachers. (FL)

Investigates the process involved in acquiring word knowledge from written context in prereading kindergarten children. Analyzes children's readings of picture books to identify patterns of vocabulary growth. Concludes that children learned lexicogrammatical information incidentally through exposure to written context. (MM)

The Fluharty Preschool Speech and Language Screening Test was examined in terms of construct validity. Analysis of test results for 260 children (ages three to six) found that results for internal consistency, discriminant analysis, and item difficulty analysis raised questions about the usefulness and appropriateness of many test items.…

Discusses a variety of storytelling techniques. Emphasizes the importance of children's involvement in the construction and use of storytelling props. Concludes that storytelling helps children develop a positive attitude toward learning and extends their opportunities for literacy development. (RWB)

The article surveys literature and research about deaf children's acquisition of American Sign Language, especially as it compares to language acquisition of their hearing peers. The development of manual articulation as well as vocabulary, morphology, syntax, and fingerspelling acquisition are discussed. (JL)