It is argued here that childhood phonological errors systematically simplify the child's inventory of phonetic elements and strings. (Author/KM)

A hierarchy of listening skills composed of environmental skills, discrimination skills, and comprehension skills can be used by teachers to develop an effective language arts program that includes an awareness of the stages of auditory perception. (JH)

Asserts that language mastery should be judged separately from knowledge, reasoning ability and personality traits. Recognition of and communication of intention are discussed as key factors in language mastery, and the skills of reading, speaking, writing and comprehension are described as independent skills. (RM)

Four separate bibliographies list references regarding infants with such disabilities as blindness, visual impairments, mental retardation, and Down Syndrome. Citations listed include journal articles, books, manuals, and other publications. The first bibliography lists 24 references regarding blindness or visual impairments in infants and ways to…

This paper examines children's preferences and understanding of stories and story elements by analyzing an extensive collection of art, writing, and teacher observations of one child, Virginia. The paper traces the progession of Virginia's understanding of character, setting, action/plot, and preference for fairy tale structures as evidenced in…

This program focuses on therapeutic principles and methods for prelinguistic and early language learning, with the goals of increased cognitive functions and sensory awareness/interaction, expanded communicative repertoires, and increased caregiver interaction with the child through appropriate stimuli and assignment of communicative intent. The…

Preliminary findings are reported from a study examining changes in preschool-aged child communication skill occurring when parents were trained to apply one of two procedures: milieu teaching and responsive-interactive teaching. Three families participated in milieu language training in which the adult uses naturally occurring situations as…

This 10-chapter monograph explores the range of influences parents have on their children's linguistic development and in the process attempts to understand why parents adopt the language styles they do in addressing children. The discussion focuses on the following three themes that are interwoven throughout the book: (1) the social nature of…

By limiting sentence combining to the arena of syntax and skills, an individual's own thinking is seriously constricted. Any linguistic act is simultaneously two games at once--an "inner game" of intention and strategy, and an "outer game" of actual performance. According to this formulation, all language events are intentional, purposeful, and…

This study, an intra-cultural comparison among a Mestiza population in Central Mexico, was designed to investigate what the universal and culture-specific aspects of children's transition from sensorimotor to linguistic communication might be. (The culture-specific aspect was defined in this study as the degree to which caregivers provided…

The Early Childhood Language Centered Intervention Program of the New York City Public Schools was designed to provide classroom instruction and transportation for preschool children with primary and secondary speech/language handicaps, and to train parents to participate in the education of these children. Using individual education plans (IEPs),…

The language experience approach is a reading methodoloy that is highly organized, highly structured, and very systematic, but that allows teachers to teach without texts. It is a multiple, variegated set of activities designed to serve one purpose, namely, the instructional use of pupil's own language. As such, there are five interrelated aspects…

There is one and only one common human language processing system and a variety of linguistic data to be processed. This system must operate opportunistically with certain areas of freedom. Within that system there is competition between the first and second languages on all levels and through all stages of development. Some processing procedures…

This resource tool, which consists of word lists based on consonant sounds and blends, extends the range of materials available to professionals who teach speech sounds to students. The alphabetical word lists are arranged with each consonant sound in initial, medial, and final positions. The blends or sound clusters for each sound follow in…