Examination of syntactic complexity in the movie retellings of 77 elementary school-age Spanish-speaking children revealed developmental differences in the length of T-units, index of subordination, use of relative clauses, and prepositional phrases. Analysis underscores the significance of subordination as a cohesive device and as an indicator of…

Provides an overview of how early identification and intervention for hearing impairment may benefit deaf infants' acquisition of symbolic language. Concludes that the role of the caregiver is central to the planning and success of early intervention programs for infants with deafness. (MDM)

A study of the signing of six deaf preschoolers found that they produced phonological and morphological errors, and semantic overgeneralizations, comparable to those made by hearing children when learning to speak. This suggests that deaf children actively construct sign language rules in the same way that hearing children build up the rules of…

This study of 15 Hebrew-speaking preschool children with specific language impairment and 2 comparison groups tentatively supported the notion that grammatical morphemes were less difficult for subjects if they take the form of stressed and/or lengthened syllables and if they appear in a language in which nouns, verbs, and adjectives must be…

Advanced adult nonnative speakers of English were taped in advising sessions to analyze two speech acts, suggestions, and rejections according to their frequency, form, and success. They were compared with native speakers. Results are explained by the availability of positive and negative feedback. (30 references) (Author/LB)

The errors on word-initial consonant clusters made by children (ages 2-9) in the Iowa-Nebraska Articulation Norms Project were tabulated by age range and frequency. Error data showed support for previous research in the acquisition of clusters. Cluster errors are discussed in terms of theories of phonologic development. (Author/JDD)

This study examined the complex syntax production of 45 pre-school-aged African American boys and girls from urban, low income homes. Results provide quantitative descriptions of amounts of complex syntax and suggest a potential positive relationship between amounts of complex syntax and amounts of nonstandard English form usage in the children's…

Examined the development of principles of control in the grammar of 15 preschool children over a 9-month period, focusing on pronominal reference. The results confirm a developmental sequence that is driven by lexical learning and changing structural analyses. (38 references) (MDM)

Reviews the research on (1) developmental stages of play among young children; (2) solitary play as a separate continuum with its own developmental stages; and (3) benefits of solitary play on the child's whole development. (BB)

Presents an annotated bibliography of 12 citations of recent reports and conference papers from the ERIC database concerning the many roles parents play in the acquisition and development of language and literacy of their children. (MG)

The first part of a larger planned investigation, this study examines the use of "por" and "para" by nine Peace Corps volunteers in oral interviews at the end of training and roughly one year later, to trace their acquisition over time, in two learning contexts. (24 references) (LB)

This article presents a rationale and ways to use communication games in written form to entice deaf children to try new forms of language. It emphasizes the importance of using communicative teaching methods and considering students' communicative adequacy rather than form. Games include picture/object matching games and bingo/lotto games. (JDD)

The article describes use of Project LIFE (Language Improvement to Facilitate Education), originally marketed in the early 1970s, at the New York State School for the Deaf. The program, appropriate for all ages, is based on a spiraling curriculum of concepts and skills and uses filmstrips, "funbooks," and audio cassettes. (DB)

The development of forms and functions of negation in parent-child interactions in the early stages of language acquisition is discussed with illustrative examples from field data relating to two Tamil-speaking children and their parents. An attempt is made to provide a scheme for analyzing the negatives in children's speech. (18 references) (JL)

Eighteen cases of disintegrative psychosis (DP) were compared with 52 cases of infantile autism (IA) with speech loss and 145 IA cases without speech loss. DP cases showed clearer regression after more satisfactory development than the IA cases with speech loss, and by age seven were more severely retarded but similar in autistic symptomatology to…