Examined how preschoolers' experiences with mixed-age peers in family child care homes affect development. Found that interaction with younger and same-age peers was associated with less complex social and cognitive play and lower receptive language scores. Interaction with older peers was related to more complex cognitive play. The setting…

Discusses three studies: (1) the effectiveness of semantic analyses of written narratives of students with hearing losses in determining language ability; (2) written-language characteristics of writers matched by reading abilities alone and matched by reading ability and age; and (3) written-language characteristics of writers with hearing…

This study investigated factors contributing to auditory, speech, language, and reading outcomes in 136 children (ages 8-9) with prelingual deafness after 4-6 years of cochlear implants. While child and family characteristics accounted for 20% of outcome variance, the primary rehabilitative factor was educational emphasis on oral-aural…

A survey of 71 day and residential schools found 19 identified themselves as bilingual-bicultural (BiBi) programs. Of the 19 programs, 37% reported use of manually coded English. Fluency in American Sign Language of instructional and support staff varied, with 47% reporting no more than half of instructional staff were fluent. (Contains…

This article highlights the link between lexical and phonological acquisition by considering learning by children beyond the 50-word stage and by applying cognitive models of spoken word processing to development. The effects of lexical and phonological variables on perception, production, and learning are discussed in the context of a…

Nondisabled only children (N=10) were observed and videotaped at home with their mothers in scripted, free-play, and novel contexts to probe uses of temporally displaced (TD) communication and maternal contributions to its development. Scaffolded maternal speech was found important to TD speech development and context-sensitivity underscored as a…

Reports on two studies designed to prove three hypotheses: (1) five-year-olds can successfully learn a second language (L2); (2) early L2 learning has a positive effect on the development of children's cognitive and first language linguistic abilities; and (3) early L2 learning assists socio-economically disadvantaged children in overcoming…

Criticizes recent revisions in the National Curriculum for English in Great Britain. The author deplores that the new National Curriculum has not seized the opportunity of recognizing Britain as a multilingual, multicultural society and provides practical strategies for implementing the new English orders for both quality and equality. (GR)

This section contains six articles on the following topics: (1) friendship and love in the early childhood curriculum; (2) creating a stimulating classroom environment; (3) encouraging children's sense of joy; (4) learning from nature and people outside the classroom; (5) language experiences for young children; and (6) what children need to feel…

Describes a study that found, contrary to previous reports, that a strong, symmetrical release from proactive interference (PI) is the normal outcome for switches between American Sign Language (ASL) signs and English words and with switches between Manual and English alphabet characters. Subjects were college students enrolled in their first ASL…

Compares the educational needs of young children and adolescents in relation to movement, work attitudes, psychic development, and language development, emphasizing the prepared environment of the Montessori approach. Also examines the importance of valorization, normalization, and key experiences in the education of adolescents. (MDM)

Thirty-eight bilingual (Spanish-English) first graders with language delays were compared on rate of receptive acquisition of English prepositions and pronouns. Subjects who received instruction in Spanish prior to instruction in English acquired the English prepositions and pronouns twice as rapidly as subjects who received instruction in English…

Considers theory and hypotheses about the relationship between preschool experiences and literacy outcomes that are based on the longitudinal Home-School Study of Language and Literacy Development project, now in its fourth year of data collection. Also discussed are the sample, data collection techniques, and types of analysis being used in the…

This study compared (1) performance on language skills and phonological process measures by 41 kindergarten children with speech/language impairments, and (2) their reading ability in first grade. Children with semantic-syntactic language deficits exhibited more difficulties in reading than did children with articulation impairments. Phonological…

Among 187 Arizona Mexican-American children with limited proficiency in both Spanish and English, participation in a maintenance bilingual education program during grades K-2 produced significant gains in oral language acquisition for both languages. Students with the lowest proficiency scores in kindergarten showed the greatest gains. (SV)