The primary and generalized effects of Enhanced Milieu Training were examined with six preschool children with significant language delays. Children systematically increased their use of target language skills during the intervention sessions, and these changes were maintained when treatment was discontinued. Some generalization to untrained…

Examines the role of grammatical prerequisites in code switching in young bilingual children. Grammatical constraints are not violated in the earliest uses of mixing. Code switching occurs early in life within these constraints when a certain kind of grammatical knowledge is accessible and functional categories are implemented in the child's…

Development of a program integrating multiply disabled children into a self-contained preschool program serving deaf and hard of hearing children is described. Although the children were integrated within one curriculum, they were provided small group instruction based on their language skill levels. (DB)

Garman (1974), reporting on 20 Tamil children aged 3 to 5, postulated a linguistic strategy and 2 prelinguistic strategies to explain results of a question-picture choice task involving sentences with embedded and subordinate clauses. Reanalysis of this data identifies four processing strategies and argues that certain grammatical sensitivities…

Literacy should not be limited to decoding written text. More broadly construed, education should address the many ways in which experience is represented, the development of cognitive potential, and differences in intellectual proclivities. The object should be cultivation of a broad capacity to construct meaning. (SK)

Analyzes whether comprehensible input via captioned television influences acquisition of science vocabulary and concepts using 129 bilingual seventh and eighth graders. Finds that comprehensible input is a key ingredient in language acquisition and reading development. (MG)

Reviews the research in the area of Spanish language acquisition, with special emphasis on acquisition by Mexican-American children ages two to five. Presents a tentative course of development in phonology, morphology, and syntax. Discusses implications for early childhood education and other areas in need of further research. (Author/GLR)

This study evaluated 9 computer-generated measures of children's language production, based on 24 children with specific language impairment and 24 normally developing children, ages 24-50 months. Three measures possessed desirable developmental and diagnostic characteristics: mean syntactic length, total number of words, and number of different…

A study of 13 14-month-old and 12 18-month-old children found that the younger infants relied more on gestures and fussing to express their physical wants, whereas the older infants relied more on vocal responses, especially when clarification of their wants was needed. (MDM)

Recommends that curriculum and instruction be designed to engage students in using the tools of speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Describes a curriculum framework that takes into account adolescents' language development and uses language to integrate various academic subjects. (PAM)

This case study documents the emergence of reading ability in an extremely precocious reader between the ages of two years, seven months and three years, two months. At the end of this period, his word recognition ability was at the late first-grade level. Writing skills began to develop when he was four years old. (DB)

Addresses recent advances in research and theory that relate to language shift in early childhood, cognitive, and academic consequences of bilingualism and second-language learning, and theoretical models for conceptualizing the development of bilingualism and second-language learning. Contains annotated bibliography. (47 references) (LET)

This article reviews research on children's development of cognition, memory, and language; development of knowledge about the legal system; developmental and motivational factors influencing children's willingness to make sexual abuse reports in legal settings; reports of abusive touch; and strategies used to prepare children for medical…

The complexity of teaching second-language vocabulary is illustrated with numerous examples of words that do not have an exact reciprocal from one language to another. Some insurmountable differences are cited, and the rationale for usage of an inaccurate but culturally acceptable word is offered. (13 references) (LB)

Results of a longitudinal case study of a monolingual Sesotho-speaking boy show that rule-assigned tone on subject markers is marked appropriately by age two. Underlying tonal representations on verb roots are learned gradually over time, showing an early Default High tone pattern. (Contains 51 references.) (Author)