Examines recent attempts to explain children's word use and selection through recourse to information theory. It is concluded that information theory cannot account for the complexities involved in early word selection. (AM)

Reports on a study investigating the relationship between children's linguistic environment and language acquisition. In particular, the study examined the effect of mothers' speech on subsequent child speech. (Author/AM)

Reports on the objectives and phases of a research project seeking to discover the relationship between grammar as learned in the native language and as learned in a second language. (AM)

Presents methodological and factual analyses of children's use of imitative speech as a strategy in language acquisition. The impact of conversational interactions and picture-story books on the speech of one girl aged 20 to 32 months is demonstrated. Four methodological problem areas are analyzed. (Author/RH)

Reports that when hearing-impaired children imitated nonsense words containing bilabial consonants, the rank order of correct responses and total choices was "b" (highest), "m," and "p" (lowest). The data are discussed in terms of auditory-visual perceptions of the hearing impaired and the order of the sounds in normal-hearing children. (Author/RL)

Considers the use of syntactic complexity data as norms of syntactic development and notes misinterpretations that have resulted from the use of the term "syntactic maturity" for "syntactic complexity." (DD)

Seven principles underlying the development of speech communication skills in hearing impaired children are presented. Among the principles discussed are that speech is an invaluable asset and deserves high priority, and that the caregiver should be the primary agent in helping the child acquire speech. (Author/PHR)

This article discusses a study designed to obtain some information regarding the nature of the awareness children have of their own articulatory activity and the level of mental development at which this awareness appears. (Author/CFM)

Describes language experience activities which tie concepts, vocabulary, sentence structure, and beginning reading skills together and which are appropriate for the bilingual child. (MKM)

Reviews research on sequences in language development and suggests ways to base instruction on each student's level of development. (DD)

Describes how the educational museum Clarke Hall provides a stimulus to language use by involving children in the daily life of the seventeenth century. (DD)

Comments on Cazden's paper "How Knowledge about Language Helps the Classroom Teacher-Or Does It: A Personal Account," which appeared in the previous issue of "The Urban Review," by drawing upon personal and professional experiences, asserting that "a child's or adolescent's 'silence' or shyness does not mean an incapacity for further development."…

Investigated with 12 preschool children were whether IQ scores are a predictive indicator of potential learning disability and whether nonprofessional volunteers can remediate possible motor, perceptual, or verbal deficiencies with a concomitant increase in IQ score. (DB)

This article discusses how and when children acquire and master various speech styles, and specifically deals with the development of sex-specific speech as influenced by role expectations. (CLK)

Discusses the introduction of English FL teaching into the primary school, including creating motivation for speaking, for the individual, group and class: use of songs and games, dialogue, combining speaking and acting, and the place of the textbook in primary school English teaching. (Text is in German.) (IFS/WGA)