Analysis of speech samples from four-year-old monozygotic and dizygotic twins revealed that the monozygotic twins were significantly more likely to misproduce the same sound on an articulation test than were dizygotic twins. The dizygotic twins were no more likely to share errors than were children who were both genetically and environmentally…

A study of two- to six-year-olds' spontaneous uses of "from" to mark oblique agents showed that, while the two-year-olds produced "from" for agents and "with" for instruments in imitation, older subjects shifted to "by" for agents and kept "from" to mark locative sources. (Author/CB)

Examination of the speech of eight mothers and eight fathers to their one- to two-year-olds (N=8) indicated that, while paternal speech was not more diverse than maternal speech, paternal speech did show greater use of rare vocabulary and lower use of common vocabulary. (Author/CB)

Cross-linguistic investigation of the importance of syntactic cues and cue processing cost in French and Spanish four through six-year-olds' sentence comprehension revealed that topological cues helped French subjects most, while local cues helped Spanish subjects most. (Author/CB)

Investigates the language used by teachers and 35 children of 4 years in Ausubelian (AP) and Piagetian (PP) preschool programs. Both groups of teachers used closed questions more often than open-ended questions. Children in AP performed significantly better than children in PP on tasks involving process operations. (RJC)

Estimating readability requires more than a formula comparing word length and sentence length. Other factors to be considered include vocabulary, the relationship between syntax and readability, the syntax used in children's oral language, and writing style. Steps are outlined for systematically estimating readability of instructional materials…

A longitudinal study of four 17- to 33-month-olds revealed that their linguistic selection at the one-word stage was governed by principles of informativeness, while the two-word stage was characterized by new, or a combination of new and old, information. (Author/CB)

Focuses on concepts and arguments from psychoanalysis and presents an example of a counterargument on the slip of the tongue. The article delineates psycholinguistic accounts of speech errors, showing how these accounts can enhance a comparison of three samples of literary and nonliterary word substitutions that elucidate claims being made in…

A bilingual child's development of word order in German and English subordinate clauses was followed between age 3 and 5, and a number of diversions from the development of word order in such clauses by monolingual children was noted. (Contains five references.) (Author/LB)

The development of a new parent report instrument, Inventario del Desarollo de Habilidades Communicativas, is reported and 5 studies carried out with the instrument for 328 children aged 8 months to 2 years/7 months are presented. Among the findings are similar trajectories of development for Spanish- and English-speaking children and for children…

This study investigated four- and six-year-olds' support pursuing the role of positive evidence in the acquisition of the knowledge of lexical features such as the control status of individual verbs. Findings seem to be compatible with a claim that grammatical knowledge is instantaneous. (Contains 24 references.) (Author/LB)

Using transcripts of children's talk, this paper examines the validity of claims that children provided with opportunities to work cooperatively and collaboratively in small groups will use talk to help them make meaning and enhance their cognitive understanding. The claims are substantiated. (Contains 32 references.) (Author/LB)

This study examined effects of familiarity with a speech target on coarticulation magnitude in 30 young children and 10 adults. Children exhibited a greater effect of a following vowel on the preceding fricative than did adults. Nonmeaningful production items exhibited greater effects of the vowel on the preceding fricative than did meaningful…

Research on interactions between mothers and children with hearing loss was reviewed. Communication between hearing mothers and children who are deaf is often characterized by asynchrony, excessive maternal control, and child dependence. Mothers who are deaf use various strategies to accommodate their child's need for visual language input.…

Examined the nature of infants' development of social knowledge and the role of caregivers' verbal responses to requests in learning about self and others. Found that, as indicated by changes in request-making behavior, children's conceptualization of the role of self in making requests changes with age; the nature of children's conceptualization…