A group of young children (17 to 24 months), although capable of semantically equivalent verbal behavior, tended to persist with gestures when experiencing communicative failure. The children may not have realized a verbal behavior can replace or enhance gestural communication. (MSE)

Although both environmental and cognitive factors were found to predict language development, cognitive factors appear to be more significant in the early months and environmental factors become more significant later in development. (MP)

Spontaneous and imitated-sentence responses of six children were examined for their sound patterns in the acquisition of /x/, /f/, and /s/. The data tend to support the position that children may produce forms exemplifying geographical-dialectical constraints, general developmental processes, and variability in development across children.…

In order to determine (1) the major speech characteristics of mothers and fathers and (2) the relationship between parental input and child language development, a longitudinal analysis of parents' input language was conducted during the period in which four first-born children progressed from no words to the stable use of one-word utterances in…

Examines psychologist David R. Olson's current work on children's language development and its possible educational implications. Stresses the increasing tendency to investigate children's language development in relation to their thinking and learning rather than in isolation and to include literacy development in the oral language development…

Describes adjustments in speech patterns made by two- and three-year-olds when talking to their 14-month-old siblings and compares these changes with those made by mothers addressing their babies. Individual differences between the children indicate two types of influence on the adjustments made--pragmatic and emotional. (EKN)

Describes an experiment to see whether the words "front" and "back" introduce the concept of "front-back" or whether the concept preceded the words. Results show that (1) a complex disjunctive concept of "front-back" orientation precedes any knowledge of the words; (2) linguistically, "back" is comprehended before "front"; and (3) children at an…

Describes a study in which children are asked to choose the most probable or permissible of two modal propositions, a technique which assesses the children's appreciation of relative force. Results indicate that the general acquisition rule was: the greater the difference in the strength of the two modal propositions, the earlier the difference…

Shows that among the qualities of interaction present in peer learning are the negotiation of teaching and collaborative roles, attention-focusing, showing and pointing, and informative messages. (FL)

Indicates relationships between children's graphic expressions and thinking, writing, and reading. It is concluded that, if children are motivated to verbalize about personal experiences they have expressed graphically, they probably will be additionally motivated to read what they have written. (Author/RH)

Observes that children are ready to write when they understand what writing does, when they are interested in writing, when they want to communicate through writing, and when they understand that written symbols represent meaning. (RL)

Describes various aspects of young children's playful use of language. The kind and characteristics, functions, and teaching implications of language play are discussed. (Author/CM)

Appraises the academic reception of McLuhan's ideas. Suggests how his insights can be applied within a systematic research tradition. (The author uses his own research on the bias of speech and writing as an example.) (PD)

Reports that the results of a study that used both classical and naturalist experimental approaches yielded quite different linguistic pictures of the same children. (JL)

Reports on naturalistic research studies revealing that children begin to learn to read and write long before they go to school. (JL)