A review of the literature on development of verbal language by sighted and blind children is followed by report of a study showing no gross differences in the language of intellectually normal sighted and blind adolescents. (CL)

Reviews some of the principal phenomena that have been found to characterize the acquisition of word meaning during the first two years of life, and proposes a theoretical framework which can be used to interpret these phenomena. (MP)

Although both 14 language impaired and 14 normal young children showed greater comprehension and production of words referring to objects than to actions, this tendency was not as marked for the language impaired Ss. (CL)

According to a new classification schema, data were obtained from both adults and children on article usage in English. The sample included children in the initial period of article acquisition (from two to three years of age). Results are discussed in terms of age differences and children's levels of difficulty. (MP)

A brief history of the study of language acquisition is followed by a detailed discussion of two subareas: metalinguistic thinking and the development of literacy. (MP)

Multiple choice tests of preposition usage were given to 206 hearing-impaired adolescents. In general, they followed the predicted sequence but showed a greater ability to comprehend the manner of "grammatical" prepositions than would be expected. Three general principles for comprehension by deaf adolescents are proposed. (Author)

Measures designed to explore word-finding ability were administered to 60 8- to 11-year-old learning-disabled and normal-learning children. Three stimulus contexts and high- and low-frequency words were used. Certain substitution types and secondary characteristics emerged as specific to learning-disabled children. (Author/SW)

Reviews the impact of severe hearing loss in infancy on language development, discussing the effect of ear infections in infants in some detail and revealing the consequences of disruptions in the child's listening/speaking development in the early months of life. (Author/MP)

The study evaluated the effects of a classroom-based language training program in teaching two elementary-age mentally retarded children how to give personal information. Following training, the children were able to give correct responses to adults who were not involved in training. (Author/SB)

Describes American Sign Language (ASL) as "locative," because its grammatical/semantic structures derive from spatial notions; and "semantically perspicuous," because its phonetic and semantic structures are isomorphically related. Presents an ASL morphology showing how verbs are built from six basic locative/directional stems. Discusses…

Sixty-four hearing Ss (grades three, four, and seven) and 94 deaf Ss (grades one, three, five, and seven) were tested to determine whether deaf children extract morpheme structure constraints from their exposure to written English. The results showed first-, third-, and fifth-grade students at a disadvantage next to their hearing counterparts.…

Ten nonretarded preschoolers and 10 mildly mentally retarded children (mean age 8 years) were compared for control over various syntactic structures. The retarded children evidenced difficulties similar to those of younger nonretarded children. (Author/SB)

The results suggested that although blind children are generally competent in language, they utilize a number of linguistic strategies that differentiate them from sighted language users. (Author)

The use of wordless picture books is recommended for use with young language disabled children. Use of the books can help build vocabulary, produce phrases and sentences, develop sequence and prediction skills, and create positive attitudes toward books. (DB)

Explores markedness of languages and language change in relation to their roles in the consistency of language. Concludes typology provides no explanations in itself, but rather through data which need explanations and form a testing ground for linguistic theories. (Author/BK)