Twenty-four caregivers and their 2- to 4-year-old children took part in a storybook reading task in which caregivers taught children novel labels for familiar objects. Findings indicate parental speech could provide a rich source of information to children in learning how different lexical categories are expressed in their native language.…

This research tested the hypothesis that young children's bias to generalize names for solid objects by shape is the product of statistical regularities among nouns in the early productive vocabulary. Fifteen- to 20-month-olds given intensive naming experiences with typical noun categories developed a precocious shape bias and showed accelerated…

This study compared perception and production of Korean speech sounds by college students who had spoken Korean regularly for a few years during childhood to those of novice Korean learners and childhood hearers who had heard Korean regularly during childhood but had spoken Korean only minimally. Findings revealed long-term benefits of childhood…

Three studies investigated how 3-year-old Japanese children interpret the meaning of a new word associated with a familiar artifact. Findings suggest that children flexibly recruit clues from multiple sources, including shape information and function familiarity, but the clues are weighed in hierarchical order so children can determine the single…

Argues that the question of whether bilinguals initially have one or two phonetic systems is out of place, because before the child develops a fairly substantial vocabulary of about 100 words, there is no system at all. This is supported by analyses of early word patterns drawn from three bilingual children. (Author/VWL)

Four- to 10-year olds viewed pictures in which all or some individuals pictured were doing something to all or some objects pictured. Children indicated which sentences, using "all" or "each" to modify the subject or object, applied to the pictures. In choosing the applicable sentence, children showed little difficulty with…

Examined development of displaced reference in four deaf children who used homesign and in 18 hearing children. Found that deaf children referred to the nonpresent less frequently and at later ages than hearing children, both groups followed similar developmental paths. Deaf children evoked the nonpresent by generating novel gestures, modifying…

Suggests several factors to account for the onset of infant-adult joint attention initiated by the infant, and identifies several consequences of infants' understanding of others as intentional subjects, such as verbal development and infants' role in their own enculturation. Contends that infants learn referential gestures not only by imitation…

Determined the degree to which a sample of one child's creative utterances related to utterances that the child previously produced. Utterances were intelligible, multi-word utterances produced by the child in a single hour of interaction with her mother. Results suggest the high degree of creativity in early English child language could be…

Investigated whether crosslinguistic interference occurs in the domain of subject realization in Spanish in a bilingual (Spanish-English) acquisition context. Also explored whether the source of the interference is due to child-internal crosslanguage contact between English and Spanish or due to the nature of the language input in a bilingual…

Investigated the use of complex syntax in narrative language samples of older children and adolescents with Down syndrome and a group of typically developing children matched on mean length of utterance. Findings indicate that syntactic development in individuals with Down Syndrome continues into late adolescence and is not limited to simple…

Considers online Internet chatting as a means to resolve simulation tasks in lieu of face-to-face negotiation and suggests that online chatting extends linguistic opportunities for participation in small-group settings while retaining the interactive qualities of spoken conversation. Concludes that language learners who are normally reluctant to…

Evaluated efficacy of 3 preschool language curricula during 24-week intervention with 76 preschool children. Found no significant pretest-posttest gains in basic concept acquisition among Boehm Resource Guide, Bracken Concept Development Program, and Peabody Language Development Kit-Revised (PLDK-R). Only PLDK-R demonstrated significant…

This article reflects on Alexander Graham Bell's 1888 testimony before the Royal Commission of the United Kingdom on the Condition of the Deaf and Dumb, Etc. Excerpts are grouped by reference to (1) language education for the hearing impaired; (2) speechreading; (3) methods of teaching; (4) speech; and (5) sign language. (Author/PB)

Recalls childhood experiences which influenced the author in becoming a writer and a teacher. Explores the symbolic power humans wield with language, which extends from a single word to a phrase to a whole story. (MG)