Results indicate that at least three factors contribute to the linguistic complexity of "wh-questions" and help to determine sequence of acquisitions: the syntactic function of the individual "wh-forms," the relative semantic complexity of different verbs, and contingency relations in discourse. (MP)

The longitudinal study of four normal children, 18 to 36 months old, and five Down's syndrome (DS) children, 3 to 6 years old, analyzed the development of stop consonants and stop clusters. Although similar sound patterns were observed for the two groups, the DS children showed considerable performance delay. (DB)

Results showed that 12 language disordered children (four to six years old) selectively marked new information in verbal communication, just as normal children do. Language disordered and normal children, furthermore, manifested the same developmental sequence of strategies for deemphasizing old information. (Author/CL)

Videotaped interaction of six infants, some deaf and some hearing, shows comparable stages and sequences of communicative development; the use of performative gestures or single vocalizations; use of referential gestures; combination of signs, gestures, and words; and signs combined with signs or words with words. (MSE)

Examines speech convergence as a primitive form of socialized speech. Discusses the extent of speech patter matching by three-year-old children and whether a talkative/reticence factor influenced degrees of convergence. (EKN)

The paper reviews instrumental studies of "functional" misarticulations in children and reports an experiment involving three subject groups (N=7 in each group) of normally articulating adults, normally articulating children, and children who misarticulate the /s/ sound. (Author)

Described is a milieu teaching approach to language development of young handicapped children. The method involves prompting and contingent delivery of reinforcers during normal language interactions in such classroom settings as free play, lunch, or instructional periods. (MC)

Morphological ability performance of 20 learning disabled (LD) and 20 normal seven- to eight-year-old boys on the Berry-Talbott Language Test of Comprehension of Grammar yielded the major findings that the LD boys did not differ significantly from normals on item categories ranked by difficulty level. (Author/MC)

Describes the acquisition of a set of nonverbal intentionally communicative behaviors for six preverbal infants followed longitudinally. Results show a trend for a set of communicative intentions to emerge in the following sequence: (1) protesting, (2) request for action, (3) request for object, (4) comment on action, (5) comment on object, and…

Describes a study that examines the pragmatic language functions used by school-age children during a structured dialog consisting of a question-answer paradigm. Develops a 10-category taxonomy to classify subjects' responses and finds the taxonomy to be effective in two ways: (1) the number of categories is sufficient, and (2) the interscorer…

Argues that recent emphasis in second-language research has been on the communication situation of the language learner and on the features of input and individual differences in learning style that affect how the interlanguage develops. Suggests that research is needed on the interaction of situational and personal variables. (MP)

Examines the abilities of 50 children (10 each at ages 6, 8, 10, 12, and 14 years) to produce tag questions. Of particular interest was the determination of whether or not constituents of a correct tag are acquired at different ages. (MP)

Thirty-six three- and four-year-old children were given a battery of six metalinguistic tasks and two measures of language development. Results indicate that the majority of preschoolers were able to make at least some metalinguistic judgments and that metalinguistic performance improved with age. (Author/MP)

Two experiments involving a seven-year-old trainable developmentally retarded boy demonstrated the effectiveness of an integrative language training model on the S's functional use of sign language. The model relied on delay and incidental teaching. (CL)

Discusses a longitudinal and cross-sectional study of two- to three-year-olds' acquisition of noun pluralization patterns in Hebrew. Results indicate that children choose the plural morpheme according to the nature of the final syllable of the singular noun and not by the grammatical gender of the noun. (EKN)