Infants raised the pitch of their vocalizations when stimulated by vocalizing parents. Nonvocal stimulation did not repeat the effect. Intonation contours did not change during different conditions. The pitch of the parents' vocalizations also rose during vocal interaction. Changes in infant pitch were interpreted as a function of imitation.…

Research is being conducted to determine the factors behind linguistic retardation in children. A first question raised was whether the linguistic system of the deviant child is qualitatively different from that of a normal child. A matching-up of deviant and normal children according to linguistic level suggests that the onset of base syntax may…

The Yakima Indians of central Washington, speakers of Sahaptin, believe that children should be treated with great respect. For the most part, the Yakimas express strongly negative attitudes about using any form of baby talk while speaking to children. Through interviews conducted with native speakers of Sahaptin, a list of words and expressions…

This paper first considers the inadequacy of definitions of dialect speech that are too rigid. Some of the ways in which dialect can influence the performance of children in school are discussed, and the notion that dialect is an indication of linguistic deficit is also considered. In the last part of the paper, the attitude of the Schools Council…

This study begins with a discussion of what a phonological rule is, and how the term has been used in previous investigations. The relation between the child's phonological system and the adult's system, the relationship between discrimination and production, and the viability of positing underlying forms for children's words are also discussed.…

This paper discusses the problem of how to deal effectively with students' errors from the perspective of Error Analysis. Basic aspects of the theory such as "interlanguage,""learning strategies" and "the interpretation of errors" are introduced; and empirical data from child language learning studies are presented to support the underlying…

The first section of this paper discusses recent writing research and the basic elements of language development. The second section describes a program which used a sentence-combining method as an activity-based experience for language development. A six-month study involved all fourth graders at Powell School in Mountain View, California. The…

A paraprofessional was trained to provide an individualized reading, math, and language arts program to a 9-year-old educable mentally retarded boy in a regular classroom. A 5-month period of reading sessions with the classroom teacher emphasizing oral reading and comprehension contingent on word acquisition and imitation training for word…

This dissertation abstract summarizes a research study which investigated the hypothesis that bilingualism in children would result in: (1) increased ability to analyze syntax; (2) acceleration in the time of arrival of the stage of concrete operational thinking; and (3) an increase in cognitive flexibility or ability to mentally shuffle material.…

Because of the active interest of English teachers in standardized tests and the increased use of such tests to measure student performance, the emphasis section of this issue of "The English Record" contains articles addressing this subject from several perspectives. A report of a survey on standardized testing in New York State sets the scene,…

How linguistic principles can be incorporated into reading instruction was shown by examining the interrelationships of certain linguistics ideas to learning to read. First, the acquisition of oral language was discussed as to the developmental stages: phonological, morphological-lexical, and syntactic. It was suggested that reading instruction…

Three hypotheses concerning the degree to which understanding of various conjunctions is related to reading comprehension were tested. Four instruments, two standardized tests and two designed for the experiment, were administered to a stratified sample of Mansfield, Ohio, fourth-grade students. The first hypothesis--that there is a significant…

The manual attempts to bring changes into the way in which manual communication is currently used by deaf adults or in some schools for the deaf, in order to bring manual communication into a closer parallel to the English language so that signs can be used to teach English to the language handicapped deaf person and particularly to adult…

With the help of a consultant and the special teachers, a teacher aide provided language development work in primary and intermediate classes for educable mentally handicapped children. Speech activities and a language development kit were planned. The aide's role differed in different classes, but as the year progressed she worked more with…

A Parent-Child Center Program was designed to test the theory that a major cause of a disadvantaged child's academic problems is the lack of proper maternal support. The 10 subjects for this study of program effectiveness were black, without husbands, and each had a 1 1/2 to 3-year-old child. Mothers met twice a week for 6 weeks in a 2-part…