Twelve mothers were videotaped interacting with their children, aged 13 months, and 100 maternal utterances were coded for pragmatic intent. Prescriptives were coded as either changing or following the child's focus of attention. Results show that, given a joint focus, directing a 13-month-old's behavior can have beneficial effects on subsequent…

The role that talk plays in socialization, social development, and possibly cognitive development is described. Research on talk is categorized as follows: studies that consider talk as a tool for investigation; studies that focus on development of grammar or language acquisition; and studies that fall between those extremes. (LB)

Takes readers to a second grade classroom to see how children's meanings of a story grow as they engage in a variety of related activities. Discusses how the meaning of a story grows to become multifaceted as children use the story for different personal and social purposes in the classroom. (MG)

This article raises concerns about current trends toward increasing bilingual, bicultural education for deaf children. It notes that such programs often discourage the use of voice and spoken language by the deaf child and those in his environment, delay the child's introduction to English, and unreasonably expect hearing persons to use American…

The South Metropolitan Association Communication Development Program in Flossmoor, Illinois, developed a language-oriented program that improved reading and writing proficiency of students with communication disorders. The program involves development and reading of language experience stories, role playing, vocabulary development, and other…

Examines the relationship between young children's use of two languages and their cognitive development. Discusses the simultaneous and sequential acquisition of two languages; theories on cognition and language; and studies on the effects of bilingualism. Offers strategies for creating an effective language learning environment for young…

Twenty-eight adults with Down's syndrome and 28 adults with retardation of unknown origin responded to a language elicitation test. The adults with Down's syndrome exhibited an almost universal failure in mastering individual elements of the auxiliary verb system. The nature and source of biological constraints on language learning and…

The hypothesis defended is that negative data and explicit data result in a type of knowledge that is not to be equated with linguistic competence. The specific claim is that only positive data can effect the construction of an interlanguage grammar comparable to the knowledge system characterizing the results of first-language acquisition. (60…

Infants were exposed to symbolic gestures from their parents beginning at 11 months of age. In bimonthly interviews, mothers reported their infants' use of gestures and words. Results indicated a smaller but reliable difference between the onset of infants' use of symbolic gesture and the onset of their use of words than earlier research…

Trade-off effects among linguistic components were compared in 30 elementary school children with deficits in both oral and written language, deficits only in written language, or normal language development. Analysis of syntax, phonology, and fluency indicated group effects, with trade-offs between some linguistic measures and positive…

Three preschoolers with mental retardation were taught object labels using an elicited-production method, under two conditions: following the child's lead and recruiting the child's attention toward the target object. Results indicated that object-label teaching was more efficient under the following-the-child's-lead condition. (Author/JDD)

Examines the relationship between sign language and gesture in language acquisition. Specifically, the question is asked, are sign language and nonlinguistic gestures treated differently by infants acquiring a sign language? The answer is found in reexamining data concerning two deaf children learning American Sign Language (ASL). The data…

Children slow in expressive language development (SELD) at age two and matched normal toddlers were reevaluated at age four. Fifty-seven percent of SELD children showed chronic deficits in expressive syntax and morphology at reevaluation. Children with chronic language delay performed more poorly on narrative skill than their normal language…

This article reviews communicative competence in the forensic context of child abuse cases. It examines adult questioners' competence in terms of the form, content, and pragmatics of questions; time and number concepts; and physical appearance and kinship terminology. It examines child respondents' competence in terms of comprehension, cognition,…

Three mother-child dyads were videotaped in a free play setting when children were two- and three-years old. Children's spontaneous comprehensible utterances were rated for grammaticality and ambiguity of function, and mothers' responses were noted. (Contains 14 references.) (Author)