Research conducted at the Waisman Center on Mental Retardation and Human Development over the past 10 years documents the multidimensional nature of language development in retarded and nonretarded populations. Advances in research methodology will allow large-scale indepth studies of the lexical, semantic, syntactic, and pragmatic aspects of…

Explores the early use of "behind" and "in front of" with large reference objects among 33 children. The patterns for the use of these locatives suggest an acquisition process in which new conceptual resources lead to the re-analysis of object configurations and thus to new aspects of meaning. (SED)

The article describes ways in which music and elements of rhythm, harmony, melody, form dynamics, and mood can contribute to language development in learning disabled children. (CL)

The way in which children organize their discourse is examined, and the steps involved in topic initiation, maintenance, and development are traced with examples highlighting the interaction of text, topics, an goals/functions. Implications for cross-cultural language development are briefly considered. (CL)

Two norm-referenced tests--Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language (TACL) and Preschool Language Scale (PLS) and one criterion-referenced task, the Basic Two-Choice Object Discrimination Task--were administered to nine severely handicapped preschoolers. Overall, performance and behavioral ratings tended to be best for the Two-Choice Task and…

The paper discusses and corrects eight common misconceptions about language impairments in children. It is pointed out as invalid to characterize language impaired children as lazy, manipulative, stubborn, or disturbed or to focus on typical characteristics (such as behavior problems) as the causes of language impairment. (CL)

A young hearing impaired child on a kibbutz received eight years of individual tutoring from a special education teacher and grew into a sociable, outgoing girl with adequate language and cognitive skills. (CL)

A simultaneous treatments design was used to compare effects of modeling and corrected practice on generative language acquisition of six preschoolers. New syntactic forms used to describe agent-action-object stimuli were taught concurrently. All six children learned both new syntactic forms. Corrected practice produced a faster rate of learning.…

General guidelines are presented for the assessment of children's pragmatic behaviors. Specific evaluation procedures and activities are described for each component of the organizational framework detailed in Part 1: communicative intention, presupposition, and the social organization of discourse. (Author)

Learning disabled children ages 8-11 may need help to request clarification of speakers (an intergral part of everyday conversation) through activities designed to increase their facility with question forms and improve referential communication skills. (CL)

Principles, processes, and information that can be used in selecting an initial lexicon for severely handicapped persons are discussed. Two strategies for lexicon selection, one based upon functional-remedial logic and the other upon developmental considerations, are presented together with guidelines for selecting lexical items derived from each.…

Analyses of play suggested more sophisticated levels in segregated than integrated settings. There were no differences between the two settings in appropriateness of play, type of interaction, percentage of attending to teacher-directed learning activities, or quality or quantity of their language in the two settings. (Author/CL)

A reward was hidden under the stimulus picture representing the correct answer to a comprehension task. Accuracy and test-retest reliability of the responses of 34 two year olds were measured. Effects of the rewarded search procedure varied, depending on sex and the language structure tested. (Author/CL)

Research is reviewed on the use of familiar nursery rhymes with mentally handicapped children, and it is concluded that the rhymes promote social interaction and word recognition. (CL)

The Carrow Elicited Language Inventory was used to compare imitation skills of kindergarten children identified as high risk for learning disability with those of a normal control group. Significant differences were found between groups in the total number of errors and ability to imitate adjectives, conjuctions, pronouns, and verbs. (Author/CL)