Presents a critical review of studies designed to teach language production skills to children with specific language impairment. The evidence reviewed suggests that a number of training approaches are effective, often resulting in gains that exceed the rate seen in normal development, provided the speaking situation resembles enough the training…

Manifestations of egocentrism in preschool children's language, play, and ethical judgement are discussed in relation to Piagetian theory. The importance of cognitive development grounded in Piagetian principles is elaborated. (SK)

Reports on two studies on the acquisition by children of the voicing contrast in Mexican Spanish word-initial stops. The first was a longitudinal study. One analysis showed children unable to distinguish between voiced-voiceless stop cognate pairs at age 3;10. A spirantization analysis, however, more clearly revealed the children's phonological…

Studies the extent to which preschool children use pronoun ambiguity in a naturalistic setting, the circumstances in which ambiguity arises, and how the preschool children respond to such ambiguity. Results show that ambiguity of reference frequently occurs, especially when verbal disambiguation only is possible. Ambiguity did not influence…

Investigated the occurence of language in the play of preschool children. Ninety-three percent involved playing with language sounds, and 7 percent with language structure. (Author/DB)

Explores the child's use of language and suggests way to promote language development in the classroom. (MKM)

Compares use of first person singular and second person singular references in Japanese and American children six years old and under. Hypothesizes that Japanese children use a greater variety of these forms and observe sex distinction in the use of these forms to a greater extent than American children. (Author/AM)

Reports on research that sought to clarify Brown's (1973) research on acquisition order, syntactic complexity, semantic complexity, and the relationship among the three. (Author/AM)

Describes early word usage in four children aged 1.6 to 1.9. The research investigated the children's use of words whose referents are unknown to them. (Author/AM)

The command-following behavior of holophrastic children was compared to that of telegraphic children. Four holoprastic and four telegraphic children learning English as a first language, and three holophrastic and the telegraphic children learning Spanish as a first language were tested. No significant differences were found among the four groups.…

Reports on a study which explored the intonational differences between constant plus variable utterances and variable plus variable utterances, and which sought to use intonation to resolve the lexical additive vs syntactic representation of beginning productions. (AM)

Investigates the role of imitation by children in the acquisition of lexical items and factors influencing word acquisition by imitation. Imitation did not appear to facilitate subsequent spontaneous use of lexical items. Results are discussed in terms of conditions which influence imitative behavior in children. (JMB)

An analysis was made of the correspondence between intonation and the larger and smaller movements accompanying two-syllable and longer utterances. Synchrony between peaks of intonation and movement pattern was found and is used to argue for a performative basis for early two-word productions. (Author/EJS)

Reports on an experiment, performed on seven children, designed to show that children understand "here" and "there" with the self as reference point before they understand words such as these with reference to other speakers as reference points. (Author/AM)

Describes how to analyze children's talk in three categories: factual reporting, interpretive reporting, and reasoning. (DD)