This study investigated preschool children's understanding of the words "know" and "guess." Subjects for the study were 48 male and female preschool children ranging in age from 3.6 to 6.6 years. The children were divided into three age groups representing one year intervals. The task for the study involved a "guessing" game in which a colored…

This study examines the use of personal pronouns by 6-year-old children. It was hypothesized that the child's use of personal pronouns would reflect an emphasis and awareness of the social self as actor and that the self as subject would be less salient. Subjects were 128 first or only children and their mothers. Five-minute conversations between…

Maintaining that sentence-combining language experience is the single most beneficial tool currently available to improve student writing, this paper speculates about the value and effects of the adoption of the language experience approach across the English curriculum. It presents six tasks that need to be undertaken by teachers, researchers,…

This study examined the patterns of ongoing play manifested over a year's time by 141 three- and four-year-old boys and girls at nursery schools and daycare centers. The relationships between such play and concurrent language usage and the child's patterns of television viewing at home were examined during this period. Parents of the children were…

The effects of educational stimulation on creative thinking ability and the relationships among verbal and figural creativity, intelligence, and school readiness were investigated in a sample of 123 first grade children. The educational stimulation consisted of special advanced instruction in physical education, music, art, social studies, and…

ERRORS (NOT MISTAKES) MADE IN BOTH SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING AND CHILD LANGUAGE ACQUISITION PROVIDE EVIDENCE THAT A LEARNER USES A DEFINITE SYSTEM OF LANGUAGE AT EVERY POINT IN HIS DEVELOPMENT. THIS SYSTEM, OR "BUILT-IN SYLLABUS," MAY YIELD A MORE EFFICIENT SEQUENCE THAN THE INSTRUCTOR-GENERATED SEQUENCE BECAUSE IT IS MORE MEANINGFUL TO THE…

This preschool program concentrated on language development, self-concept, perception, and concept formation. Also, a vertically organized program of reading, math, science, and creative dramatics, along with parent activity, inservice training, and dissemination, covered prekindergarten through the third grade. Individual and small group work…

THE SCIENCE OF LINGUISTICS CAN, IF INTELLIGENTLY APPLIED, AID THE TEACHER OF ENGLISH IN CONVINCING STUDENTS THAT LANGUAGE IS A MEDIUM THEY CAN CONTROL BY LEARNING ABOUT ITS STRUCTURE. KNOWLEDGE OF THE PROCESSES BY WHICH CHILDREN LEARN LANGUAGE WILL LEAD ENGLISH TEACHERS TO RECOGNIZE THE STRENGTH OF BEHAVIOR PATTERNS IN USAGE AND NONSTANDARD…

In a study of paradigmatic responding, 14 educable mentally retarded (EMR) boys from a training school were matched on chronological age (CA) and Stanford-Binet IQ scores. Six served as controls, six as experimental subjects, and two as training controls. They were pretested individually for a baseline measure of their paradigmatic responses to…

Conceptual models of language learning and language use were made by a committee of school personnel interested in investigating learning differences in preschool language development, even though public school systems do not as yet include preschool classes. Normative information was collected from various research sources and classified.…

Dr. Gotkin has developed several ways to use effectively games and mechanical devices to teach language skills to preschool and kindergarten children. The matrix game, a set of pictures in columns and rows, which functions on the principles and methods of programed instruction, requires the child to discriminate symbols, pictures, and colors and…

Most of the papers in this collection were presented at a conference on language problems of the developing nations at Airlie House, Warrenton, Virginia in November 1966. This conference was one of the several organized and sponsored by the Committee on Sociolinguistics of the Social Science Research Council in its effort to promote…

This paper, part of an evaluation of the early intervention project at the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Center, deals primarily with results of the Bayley Mental Development Index (MDI). The MDI was administered to experimental and control infants from lower socioeconomic background at 6, 12 and 18 months of age. Results (discussed in…

This study reveals that children from the age of four to six years are unable to segment meaningful sentences into component words. The experiment investigated three hypotheses of performance on a word-learning task for beginning readers and prereaders. Readers and prereaders were taught five words as oral responses, each word paired with a…

This report describes an attempt to break the socioeconomic educational poverty cycle of rural black children in Williamsburg County, South Carolina. Early childhood education was identified as the area for the greatest concentration of effort. Training and retraining of instructional staff was mandated. Twenty-two kindergarten classes were placed…