Purpose: Verbal short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) skills predict speech and language outcomes in children with cochlear implants (CIs) even after conventional demographic, device, and medical factors are taken into account. However, prior research has focused on single end point outcomes as opposed to the longitudinal process of…

Critiques an earlier article by M. Frauenglass and R. Diaz reporting their study on the interaction between private speech and cognition. Argues that their interpretation fails to regard how private speech is seen to regulate cognitive activity within Vygotskian psycholinguistic theory. (HOD)

Verbal and nonverbal components of pointing initiation by Down's Syndrome children when looking at books were studied. Analysis of initiation patterns and point duration revealed possible developmental progression from a stage where point and exchange duration are linked to a stage where pointing becomes more detached from the exchange. (21…

The results showed the schizophrenic group to be similar to the controls on verbal and full-scale intelligence measures but significantly inferior on performance measures. The schizophrenic group also showed a general disadvantage in paired associate learning, with a trend toward specific differential difficulty with words as stimulus items.…

Investigates the predictability of cognitive differences at 12 months from infant and maternal behaviors at 4 months. Overall, the results show that some individual differences in cognition may be predictable across the first year of life. (Author/RH)

Compares the many-perspectives account of lexical acquisition--which proposes that children learn to take alternative perspectives along with the words they acquire--to the one-perspective account--which proposes that children are at first able to use only one term to talk about an object or event. Provides evidence from a variety of sources that…

Three experiments demonstrate that children four to ten years old, when presented with a series recall task with pictures of common objects having short or long names, showed consistently better recall of pictures with short names. (HOD)

In a study of early functions of negation (rejection and denial), 48 children under age 3 were asked easy yes/no questions. The most likely age range for the appearance of error-free denial "no" at 1 year/8 months to 2 years/1 month supports the continuity theory of negation development. (Contains 27 references.) (Author/LB)

Presents the results of an investigation of age trends in the development of ideational fluency among 7-to-12 year-olds in which verbal, figural, and Draw-a-Man tests were administered to school children in five groups at 1-year intervals between the ages of 7 and 12. A 13-item reference list is included. (Author/JL)

Compares two types of semantic development (the acquisition of disappearance words and success-failure words) to performance on two types of cognitive tasks (object-permanence and means-ends tasks) among infants. (HOD)

The purpose of this paper is to familiarize readers with Vygotsky's theory on verbal regulation of thinking skills, to describe related research and applications of the theory, and to explore its relevance for researchers, parents, and educators. (MT)

Investigated the effects of biomedical and social-environmental conditions on cognitive and language development in children toddlers. Hypothesized a strong effect of biomedical factors in first two years and a strong environmental influence at three years. Used analysis approach to estimate variables assumed to underlie measurement data. Results…

The study involving 70 deaf, 70 partially hearing, and 70 hearing children (10-16 years old) investigated the effect of lack of verbal language on development of deaf children's cognitive abilities. (SBH)

Examined children's notions about segments of written sentences. Subjects watched a sentence being written and listened to it being read. The interviewer then asked questions about each word--whether or not it was written and, if so, where. Found that children used word order before phonics to figure out what was written in each segment of the…

Notes that children are "wired" to learn, and cites research indicating the importance of talking to an infant for his or her neuron and subsequent cognitive development. Suggests reading aloud, providing positive feedback, responding verbally to the child's actions, and increasing vocabulary. (HTH)