Presents a system for coding and analyzing dialogue involving preschool age children. Each participant assumes roles of initiator and responder and is evaluated according to different scales. Illustrates the system through recorded dialogue between mothers and their three-year-old daughters. (Author/BK)

Compares and contrasts the abilities of normal and learning disabled students to abstract spelling patterns in the course of their acquisition of spelling skills. The performance of the learning disabled was significantly below that of the normal students. In addition, error analysis indicates that the responses of the learning disabled spellers…

Examines the communicative functions served by the lexical usage of normal and language impaired children whose speech was limited to single word utterances. (EKN)

Examined oset and acquisition of language comprehension and production in a language delayed child through analysis of a daily diary. In addition to confirming that the gap between comprehension and production was greater than that found in normal children, data from these observations can also be used to add to a general understanding of the…

A study of the relative difficulty of four grammatical components of object complements (complement markers, personal pronouns, tense inflection, and word order) indicated that tense marking was found to be the most difficult for hearing-impaired students. It is suggested that data on first and second language acquisition be considered when…

Replicated and extended previous research on the relationship between oral and written communication by administering referential and explanatory communication tasks in both speech and writing to elementary school children. An independent measure of social cognitive ability was administered. (47 references) (Author/OD)

Examination of factors underlying cross-language transfer in metaphor interpretation among bilingual (Spanish-English) 7- to 12-year-olds indicated that metaphor interpretation ability was higher in the older subjects. The level of metaphor interpretation was most strongly related to cognitive-developmental variables that were interdependent…

A study examined the effects of differing degrees of bilingualism (English monolingual, English-French balanced bilingual, Bengali-English partial bilingual) on nonverbal problem-solving abilities of 71 grade-three children. The groups were compared on control of attention and analysis of knowledge. Results indicate the balanced bilinguals…