The paper describes the beginnings of a total developmental language learning system for mainstreamed visually impaired children in Israel. The readiness program is divided into five sections: auditory perception and discrimination, tactile perception and discrimination and fine motor coordination, gross motor coordination, body image awareness,…

Results of the study involving 13 language-impaired children (two to three years old) indicated that unsolicited imitations play comparable facilitative roles in the lexical acquisition of normal and language-impaired children. (Author/CL)

A literature review (1964-present) highlights several theoretical issues: the relationship of play in facilitating language and cognition, play as an intervention, and play as an assessment tool. Difficulties in research methodology are cited. The appropriateness of play therapy is questioned, and evidence is presented to provide encouragement for…

Twelve language disordered second graders scored significantly lower on inference items than the cognitively matched control group of second graders on verbal and picture tasks. There was no significant difference between language disordered and kindergarten Ss for either the overall or conditional analysis. Results were interpreted as indicative…

Analysis of spontaneous language samples of six children (two to four years old) at three linguistic ages (defined by mean length of utterance in morphemes) replicated the proposed semantic ordering of question types. However, a stage characterized by uninverted forms was not supported. (CL)

The article shows significant steps by the thinkers of the eighteenth century to reevaluate in a more realistic way the whole problem of language's origin and of the physical conditions that determine the acquisition of speech by humankind. (Author/CL)

Eight adults with autistic disorders and eight IQ-matched, mentally retarded (MR) subjects were given a task involving the comprehension of structured and unstructured indirect requests. Although the performance of the MR subjects was better in both conditions, both groups performed similarly to normal four- to six-year-olds. (Author/CL)

The influence of referent type (Objects vs. Actions) and within-category referent relationships (functionally similar vs. perceptually similar) upon acquisition of lexical concepts by 12 infants were examined. Ss acquired object words and concepts in greater numbers than action words and concepts, suggestive of differences in the underlying…

Results suggested that children with Downs Syndrome are at the same level of cognitive development as are nonretarded children at the onset of both comprehension and production of object names. Soon after language acquisiton begins, however, early vocabulary development of children with Down's Syndrome begins to lag behind their cognitive…

The author challenges the view of music as "extracurricular," and illustrates the role of music in the education of deaf children, particularly in their linguistic development. A plea is made for educators to reject the current belief that the subject can profitably be "dropped" to devote extra time to traditional language and speech lessons.…

A modified incidental-teaching procedure was used to increase the receptive language skills of two autistic youths with previous institutionalization. Percentage of correct, unprompted object identifications increased when the incidental-teaching package (gestural prompts, behavior-specific praise, and contingent access to lunch-making supplies)…

The article discusses acquisition of five aspects of English beyond the basic simple sentence (inflections and modulations of meaning, negation, passive sentences, coordination, and relative clauses) and considers implications for hearing impaired students. Ways in which syntax interacts with pragmatic and semantic factors are analyzed. (CL)

Research shows that native signers do better academically than Ss who use speechreading, written English, or manual forms of English. Instruction through a natural sign language is also a benefit, and the transition to teaching through English can be successfully accomplished at about the fifth-grade level. (Author)

No significant differences were found between the children's use of prelinguistic gestures or patterns of play. Significant differences were found, however, between the communicative environments of the two groups. Severely handicapped Ss experienced significantly fewer opportunities to hear labels for objects of their attention or observe…

The article outlines the parallel development of cognition and language and describes Piagetian-oriented assessment approaches. (CL)