Infants learn their language by first determining, independent of language, the meaning which a speaker intends to convey to them, and by then working out the relationship between the meaning and the expression they heard. (Author)

Studies show many experts believe that there is no significant difference between the age when a boy begins to communicate verbally and when a girl begins. (SW)

Research supported by a grant from the Defense Research Board of Canada. (DS)

Criticism of much of the previous research into the syntax of children's language. (RD)

The effects of phonetic context and linguistic complexity level on /s/ misarticulations were examined in nine normal children (mean age 6.8 years) who misarticulated the /s/ phoneme interdentally in all positions of words. (Author/SEW)

Presents three basic tenets of the language across the curriculum philosophy: that language develops primarily through its purposeful use, that learning often involves and occurs through talking and writing, and that language use contributes to cognitive development. Discusses important practical implications these principles have for effective…

The relationship between knowledge and reasoning was explored through 12 males' and 12 females' (aged 12, 15, and adult) solutions to written syllogisms containing four conjunctions, and evaluations of single sentences for their pragmatic content. The relationship between comprehension of pragmatic uncertainty and detection of uncertain…

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.…