Reports on two studies on the acquisition by children of the voicing contrast in Mexican Spanish word-initial stops. The first was a longitudinal study. One analysis showed children unable to distinguish between voiced-voiceless stop cognate pairs at age 3;10. A spirantization analysis, however, more clearly revealed the children's phonological…

Explores the child's use of language and suggests way to promote language development in the classroom. (MKM)

The paper presents a program for increasing spontaneous functional speech to autistic like children. The program, applicable to individual and group settings, emphasizes the use of language skills beyond the classroom. (Author/CL)

Reviews pertinent developmental and neuropsychological literature and arrives at a hypothesis relating the left brain lateralization of speech to the origin of early naming as part of selective (right-biased) orienting to perceived salience or change. (Author/SS)

Communication or picture boards are described as a successful alternative method for teaching language skills to mentally handicapped students. Reasons for using the communication board are pointed out, procedures for adapting the boards to meet classroom and student needs are considered, and requirements for board design are reviewed. (SBH)

Indicates a difference between animate/inanimate subjects and objects in reversible sentences. Suggests that animatedness may be an important variable in children's early comprehension of speech, and that the traditional definition of reversibility should be modified to clarify the effects of probability and animatedness. (Author/RL)

Reports on research that sought to clarify Brown's (1973) research on acquisition order, syntactic complexity, semantic complexity, and the relationship among the three. (Author/AM)

Describes early word usage in four children aged 1.6 to 1.9. The research investigated the children's use of words whose referents are unknown to them. (Author/AM)

The command-following behavior of holophrastic children was compared to that of telegraphic children. Four holoprastic and four telegraphic children learning English as a first language, and three holophrastic and the telegraphic children learning Spanish as a first language were tested. No significant differences were found among the four groups.…

Provides further evidence of the psychological importance of semantic roles for verbal learning and broadens the realm of earlier work with semantic roles by using connected prose rather than individual sentences. (HOD)

Reports on a study which explored the intonational differences between constant plus variable utterances and variable plus variable utterances, and which sought to use intonation to resolve the lexical additive vs syntactic representation of beginning productions. (AM)

Investigates the role of imitation by children in the acquisition of lexical items and factors influencing word acquisition by imitation. Imitation did not appear to facilitate subsequent spontaneous use of lexical items. Results are discussed in terms of conditions which influence imitative behavior in children. (JMB)

Reviews research studies, available through the ERIC system, on the interaction of cognitive, social, and language development, drawing implications for language arts instruction. (DD)

An analysis was made of the correspondence between intonation and the larger and smaller movements accompanying two-syllable and longer utterances. Synchrony between peaks of intonation and movement pattern was found and is used to argue for a performative basis for early two-word productions. (Author/EJS)

Discusses five studies of early reading which suggest that oral language does not necessarily have to precede reading and that if both are learned at the same time they enrich the child's total language base. (DD)