In trying to minimize the disadvantages of children from minority cultures in their first years of elementary school, the usual approach is to employ diagnostic tools which yield quantitative measures of such children's inadequacies, and then to teach in an attempt to yield higher scores. In the area of speech-communication, this approach focuses…

This study was undertaken to compare the effectiveness of two basic approaches to the training of auditory discrimination and to assess the effect of training upon language functioning and acquisition. Subjects were 42 culturally deprived Negro preschoolers. A receptive training group, an expressive training group, and a control group were used.…

Lexical development in mentally retarded and normal children was indexed using the Free Word Association Task. Approximately 170 institutionalized and noninstitutionalized retarded children and 59 normal children were administered the 40-word stimulus list consisting mainly of adjectives and nouns. Responses were categorized according to apparent…

This study was designed to learn more about relationships between sex and the expressive and comprehensive language development of the kindergarten child. Thirty-four kindergarten children (17 males and 17 females) were given the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT) and the Vocabulary Subtest of the Weschler Intelligence Scale for Children…

Eight articles about oral language education for preschool children are presented. They are: (1) a point of view on oral language education--"Suggestions from Studies of Early Language Acquisition,""Language Programs for Young Children: Notes from England and Wales," and "The Issue of Structure," by Courtney Cazden; (2) suggestions for curriculum…

Communicative relations among children and adolescents are considered from the concept of reciprocity (or perspective of others ) and its development. Research reveals that from the ages of two through four, and often through five also, the child's speech is primarily lacking in communicative message. It is found that the major difference in…

Reflecting an orientation to reading, language development, and students, this guide was drawn together to help give focus and direction to the efforts that are occurring in schools where people are studying the environment in which a child becomes a reader. An overview of the guide centers around the belief that a child will become a reader if he…

A handbook to serve as an outline for parent discussion sessions concerning four-year-old children is presented. It is divided into the following sections: Child-Growth and Development, Physical Development, Language Development, Learning Abilities, Children and Home Art-Activities, Reading To your Child, Suggested Good Books, Questions and…

The purpose of this study was to develop an evaluation instrument to assess young children's language communication skills. Two parallel sets of Language Communication Skills Tasks (LCST) were developed. Each task was developed to measure the effectiveness of the child's communication skills as both a speaker and listener. The subjects were 112…

This book, first of all, is a personal document, a revelation of the struggles of a bright, determined child and his family in understanding and coping with his severe language disability. Secondly, it is a guide for parents, directing them to the danger signals which may indicate future language problems in their children and taking them through…

Patterns and possibilities of free modifiers in written composition were studied. One purpose of the investigation was to help students communicate more effectively in writing. A more specific purpose was to determine if complicated syntactic elements used as free modifiers could be lifted from the complex subject of grammar and be presented as…

The present study explored the effects of complex relational sentences upon the acquisition and recall of surrounding material in immediate and long-term memory. The study also investigated the effects of an immediate prompted recall test upon long-term retention, and the recallability of different types of content. Reading time (subject-paced; 16…

Language acquisition and development by the child is explored and related to other areas of maturation and the environment. The nine chapters of the book are: I. Historical Perspective (discusses the student's attitude toward language, the effects of his attitude, factors that might hamper the study of language, and, briefly, various theories of…

A series of articles intended as presentations at a symposium on language are presented. Titles are: "Object Lesson," by Connie Rosen; "Words and a World," by James Britton; "Experience and the Language to Possess It," by Winifred Faucus; "What Are They Up To?" by Nancy Martin; "Writing Poetry in the Classroom," by M. Jeremy Mulford; "A Dragon Can…

The general objectives of the program for migrant children were to maximize the educational potential of the migrant child and to increase the probability of a successful educational experience in the public schools. A total of 21 students ranging in age from 4 to 5 1/2 years were enrolled in the kindergarten class. Two races were represented with…