A study examined the relation between communication development and aberrant behavior in 13 preschool children with developmental disabilities. There was a strong inverse relation between communication ability and severity of aberrant behavior. Deficits in receptive language were more strongly associated with severe aberrant behavior, particularly…

This study examined the association of chronological age (CA) with syntax and vocabulary comprehension in 102 children and adolescents with mental retardation. Results indicated that intelligence scores accounted for 55% and 29% of the variability of syntax and vocabulary scores, respectively. Introduction of CA into the regression equation…

Investigates the differential effects of three conditions--nonegotiated, premodified input, negotiation without "pushed output, and negotiation plus pushed output--on second language (L2) learners vocabulary comprehension and acquisition (receptive and productive). Findings of the study provide empirical evidence for the important role of…

A study examined perceptual-weighting strategies and performance-audibility functions of 11 children with moderate hearing impairments (HI), 11 age-matched peers, 11 adults with moderate HI, and 11 typical adults. Results showed both hearing sensitivity and age effects. Listeners with HI required lower levels of audibility to achieve similar…

A study involving 36 children and 10 adults investigated development of auditory frequency and temporal resolution using simultaneous and backward masking of a tone. On the measure of frequency resolution, 6- year-olds performed as well as adults. However, for the backward masking task, 6-year-olds had higher threshold than adults. (Contains…

This article reviews literature relating to the role of severe congenital speech impairment on phonological processing before reporting on a study of five adults with severe congenital speech impairments and their responses on tasks involving reading, receptive vocabulary, lexical decision making, and phoneme identification. Difficulties with…

The relation between theory of mind and affective perspective taking was examined in a study with 42 three- to five-year-olds. Children completed tasks measuring affective perspective taking, theory of mind, and receptive language abilities. Significant positive correlations existed between overall affective perspective taking and theory of mind…

This study examined the receptive language skills of young children (4-6 years old) with specific language impairment (SLI). Specifically, the authors looked at their ability to fast-map semantic features of objects and actions and compared it to the performance of age-matched peers with normally developing language (NL). Children completed a…

This study explored the language skills of children with cochlear implants (CIs) compared to normal hearing (NH) peers. Standardized speech and language measures, including speech articulation, receptive and expressive vocabulary, syntax and morphology, and metalinguistics, were administered to 39 congenitally deaf children, ages 5 to 14, and a…

This study investigated the family reading behavior of 233 preschool children from low-income backgrounds who were attending Head Start. Parents completed a survey of their family reading behavior, including Child Reading, Parent Reading Interest, and Parent-Child Reading Interaction, and provided demographic data on their educational level,…

Background: Clinicians in the UK rely mainly on informal observations and structured and semi-structured tasks rather than standardized testing in their assessments of pre-school children referred with speech and language difficulties. The informal nature of the clinical decision-making process at this age is unsurprising given the dearth of…

Three experiments examined the relation between language acquisition and other symbolic abilities in 18- and 26-month old infants. Infants' ability to learn either words or symbolic gestures as names for object categories were compared across age groups. Findings indicated that infants at both ages learned novel words as symbols for object…

The major purposes of this investigation were (1) to contribute to existing research on the preschool child's comprehension of disclaimers in television commercials, (2) to identify specific standard or modified disclaimers that are understood by preschoolers, and (3) to determine logical relationships between study variables. Disclaimers were…

High level thinking abilities extend beyond just command of facts and concepts. More crucial is idea use and refinement through discourse encounters. Thinking in classrooms is served by dialogic teachers who understand and use the right discourse tactics and designs. Effective discourse will usually be accompanied by: (1) extended idea exchanges;…

A battery of assessments to determine the potential contribution of tactual aids to the acoustic perception and speech identification of young deaf children was developed. The tasks were developed so that they could be implemented with standard audiometric equipment and applied to subjects of varying age and to different types of tactual aids.…