Assessed representational abilities in hearing and deaf 2-year-old children of hearing and deaf mothers. Found group differences in expressive and receptive language based on maternal report and on experimenter assessment, but no differences emerged in child solitary symbolic play or in child- or mother-initiated child collaborative symbolic play.…

Compares social and private uses of language in 12 children 23 to 25 months of age. Based on videotapes of children's free play with an adult, results showed that regulatory, attentional, and informative uses of language appeared in speech addressed to another, while self-regulation, description of one's own activity, and expressive functions…

Results of a study of 38 preschool children observed and videotaped during performance on a jigsaw-puzzle task indicate that puzzle solutions accompanied by a high rate of verbalizations were judged as more proficient, solved with a high rate of puzzle-solving moves, and completed in a shorter period of time. (Author/RH)

Three studies examined the developmental relationship between early linguistic and cognitive achievements. Findings showed that children's ability to classify objects in a spatial or temporal order was independent of advances in productive vocabulary growth, suggesting that developments in categorization and naming depend on abilities in addition…

Analyzed vocalizations/verbalizations from children acquiring English or French in later single-word period to identify trochaic bias. Found that neither language's vocalizations were exclusively trochaic. French/English differences in iambic productions and acoustic realization of accent were traceable to adult input. Distribution of trochaic and…

Presents data showing that the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory's (CDI) large variability, lack of stability, and insufficient ability to predict early language delay are authentic reflections of individual differences in early language development rather than measurement deficiencies. Responds to critiques regarding sociodemographic…

The effect of grammatical phonological rules (those in English) and nongrammatical (those in other languages) on the learning and reproduction of morpheme-length utterances and the role of maturation on this effect were examined. Children preschool through second grade were the subjects. There were no significant differences at any grade level…

Selected spontaneous errors of word choice made between the ages of two and five by two children whose language development had been followed longitudinally were analyzed for clues to semantic developmnet. (JMB)

Investigates why young children become redundant and informative speakers after listening to nonredundant and informative speakers. The authors conclude that children confuse the length of a message with information. (Author/DB)

In a series of five experiments, young children (two- and three-year-olds) were presented with novel objects in which perceptual and functional features varied independently. Results indicate that early conceptualizations and word meanings are perceptually based when perceptual and functional features are independently available. (Author/RH)

Examined four-year olds' use of mental state terms in conversations. Found that more references to mental states were made in conversations with siblings and friends than with mothers. Frequent use of terms by both partners was related to cooperative interaction in child-friend and child-sibling dyads. Found associations with measures of language…

Evaluates the effects of presenting verbal models following the initiations or expressions of interest of 16 children aged 28 to 34 months on both production and comprehension abilities measures. Results suggest that the timing of exposure to language models plays a critical role in language acquisition. (RJC)

Fifty-six children were observed longitudinally from 18 to 30 months of age interacting with their mothers during a Communication Play that contained 8 scenes designed to encourage interacting, requesting, commenting, and narrating. Of primary concern was how often symbols infused the child's states of engagement with people and objects and how…

This study documents the development of symbolic, spatial, and temporal displacement of toddler's speech. Fifty-six children and their mothers were observed longitudinally 5 times from 18 to 30 months of age during a staged communication play while they engaged in scenes that encouraged interacting, requesting, and commenting and scenes that…