Describes a connectionist model, using a simple recurrent network trained on a phoneme prediction task, that accounts for the child's ability to identify word boundaries. The model shows that aspects of linguistic structure that are not overtly marked in the input can be derived by efficiently combining multiple probabilistic cues. (Author/MSE)

This study compared the linguistic, cognitive, and behavioral performance at 6-8 years of age of eight children born preterm and low birth weight (3-5 pounds) with that of 12 full-term peers. Quantitative analyses of performance profiles for all the children are provided. Findings found no significant differences between groups in linguistic,…

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a teacher-implemented intervention designed to replace prelinguistic behaviors with functional communication in four young children with autism. Teachers encouraged use of specific communication forms to replace specific prelinguistic behaviors. During intervention, the replacement forms increased and…

Examined potential effects of early exposure to sign language on the use of communicative gestures by a bilingual hearing child of deaf parents. Data were analyzed to identify types and tokens of communicative gestures, words, signs, and the ways in which they were combined. (Author/VWL)

Narratives of a wordless picture story by 33 individuals with Down syndrome (ages 12-26) and 99 typical children were analyzed. Individuals with Down syndrome expressed more plot line and thematic content and retold more of one of the protagonists' misadventures than the children matched for mean length of utterance. (Contains references.)…

Forty monolingual, Puerto Rican, Spanish-speaking children (ages 2-3) were given two tasks designed to obligate production of nominative and object pronouns in both reflexive and non-reflexive forms. In contrast to English-speaking children, these children demonstrated a pattern in which nominate-pronoun use preceded object-case use. (Author/CR)

Proposes an interactive model of vocabulary acquisition that accounts for acquisition of knowledge and the mental processes involved in vocabulary acquisition, emphasizing the characterization of mental processes more than any other aspects. The model, which can account for first or second languages, attempts to capture how vocabulary is…

This study, with 180 deaf or hard of hearing infants and toddlers grouped into four age ranges, found highly significant interrelationships among the four categories of play and the four aspects of communicative development studied. The development of autosymbolic play, age of hearing loss identification, and symbolic object distribution accounted…

A study assessed the ability of 20 bilingual Spanish- English-speaking children (ages 4-5) with specific language impairments (SLI) to detect and produce grammatically valid "definite article + noun" forms in Spanish. Students were more likely to offer an accurate response when the response followed an implicit morphemic rule. (Contains…

Discusses the effectiveness of the cooperative/mastery learning method on primary-grade students' acquisition of economic concepts. Provides a sample lesson that shows how cooperative and mastery methods can be combined and used in conjunction with real-life learning experiences when teaching social studies. Offers an economic fable to introduce…

When-questions are one of the last wh-questions produced by children learning English either as a first language (L1) or as a second language (L2). This article proposes a possible explanation based on internal linguistic factors, which suggest that in a when-question tense is a bound variable. Data collected by the National Center for Bilingual…

Discusses ways teachers can create a supportive literacy environment in the classroom for young children. Considers activities that encourage children's language use, and recommends creating an unhurried atmosphere, responding to cultural differences, and including a mix of planned and child-initiated activities. (JPB)

Variation in mothers' child-directed speech and in their children's rates of language development are examined as a function of childbirth order and family socioeconomic status. Findings suggest that language experience plays a non-trivial role in language development, and that the nature of that role is different for different components of…

Investigated whether the content of infant speech productions is better characterized as preserving stressed and final syllables or as preserving a trochaic pattern; used a detailed longitudinal description of one child's syllable omission. Found that the trochaic template hypothesis was not supported by these early productions. (Author/JPB)

Evaluation of effects of manual signing on toddlers' verbal and nonverbal communicative behaviors in an inclusive preschool found that teacher signing was accompanied by increases in communicative interactions by toddlers with and without disabilities. No reductive effects on communicative verbalizations were observed for either group. (Contains…