This study investigated vowel length discrimination in infants from 2 language backgrounds, Japanese and English, in which vowel length is either phonemic or nonphonemic. Experiment 1 revealed that English 18-month-olds discriminate short and long vowels although vowel length is not phonemically contrastive in English. Experiments 2 and 3 revealed…

This paper reports on a rare phenomenon in language development--the production of words without consonants, and thus syllables without an onset. Such words, which are referred as Consonant-free words (CFWs), appeared for a short period in the early speech of hearing impaired Hebrew-speaking children, who produced words consisting of one or two…

Speech perception and speech production were examined in 3-year-old Dutch children at familial risk of developing dyslexia. Their performance in speech sound categorisation and their production of words was compared to that of age-matched children with specific language impairment (SLI) and typically developing controls. We found that speech…

Purpose: In this study, the authors examined (a) whether children with specific language impairment (SLI) can implicitly compute the probabilities of adjacent sound sequences, (b) if this ability is related to degree of exposure, (c) if it is domain specific or domain general and, (d) if it is related to vocabulary. Method: Children with SLI and…

Two aspects of children's early gender development--the spontaneous production of gender labels and gender-typed play--were examined longitudinally in a sample of 82 children. Survival analysis, a statistical technique well suited to questions involving developmental transitions, was used to investigate the timing of the onset of children's gender…

Theories of language acquisition have highlighted the importance of adult speakers as active participants in children's language learning. However, in many communities children are reported to be rarely directly engaged by their caregivers. This raises the possibility that children in these communities learn language from observing 3 rd party…

Many adult learners have employment goals, from preparing to enter the workforce to improving skills that can lead to a better job. Resources in the Workforce Competitiveness Collection--research-based products and materials, and research papers--can help readers expand and improve work-based basic skills classes offered to adults. This paper…

This research report investigates the links between formal, non-formal and informal learning and the differences between them. In particular, the report aims to link these notions of learning to literacy and essential skills, as well as the learning of second and other languages in Canada. It builds upon the work of the OECD (n.d.) and Werquin…

Language disorders, and Specific Language Impairment (SLI), have been extensively studied in a number of different, though thus far almost exclusively Indoeuropean, languages. For other languages such as Turkish, Vietnamese, or Arabic, however, findings on the outcome of SLI are rare. In this context, the growing number of migrant children in…

The aim of this study was to examine the effect of the integration of physical education and language on oral and written speech of preschool children. Sixty seven preschool children (34 girls and 33 boys), ages 4 to 6, were randomly divided into two groups. Group A participated at a 5- week movement and language program in the gym while Group B…

Purpose: To examine how interaction contributes to phonological acquisition in bilingual children in order to determine what constitutes typical development of bilingual speech sound inventories. Method: Twenty-four children, ages 3-4, were included: eight bilingual Spanish-English-speaking children, eight monolingual Spanish speakers, and eight…

Quality preschool education enhances the social, cognitive and language development of children. Children in an enriched environment are more likely to be emotionally secure, self-confident and proficient in language use. Preschool settings where staff have higher qualifications demonstrate higher-quality education and provide children with better…

To examine the effects of a digestive enzyme supplement in improving expressive language, behaviour and other symptoms in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Randomized, double-blind placebo-controlled trial using crossover design over 6 months for 43 children, aged 3-8 years. Outcome measurement tools included monthly Global Behaviour Rating…

To bridge the social-reasoning focus of developmental research on irony understanding and the pragmatic focus of research with adult populations, this cross-sectional study examines 5-, 7-, and 9-year-olds' (n = 72) developing understanding of both social-cognitive and social-communicative aspects of discourse irony, when compared with adults (n =…

The experiment investigated the benefit to second language (L2) sentence comprehension of priming word meanings with brief visual exposure to first language (L1) translation equivalents. Native English speakers learning Mandarin evaluated the validity of aurally presented Mandarin sentences. For selected words in half of the sentences there was…