Research has shown that collaborative learning is a very powerful methodology as it ensures interaction among students, humanises the learning process and has positive effects on academic achievement. An activity based on this approach can also benefit from the use of technology, making this task more appealing to our students today. The aim of…

This study assessed the effectiveness of 5 hours of training on 3-year-old children's comprehension and production of the passive, negative, possessive, and negative passive syntactic structures. A comprehension test identified 20 children who did not evidence understanding of these structures. Subjects were then randomly assigned to experimental…

This study attempted to develop a diagnostic-prescriptive curriculum program to improve the school readiness of disadvantaged preschoolers. The language development patterns of 32 3-, 4-, and 5-year-olds were diagnosed by use of the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA). Teachers were trained to use this information to provide an…

A 3-month pilot project was undertaken at the University of Texas to gain experience in administering the Cynthia Buchanan Language Program (Buchanan, 1967) and to test its effectiveness in making meaningful changes in the language development of disadvantaged Mexican-American preschoolers. A group of 114 Mexican-American children were chosen as…

This article describes the Family Learning Center for Children with Developmental Language Disorders, an experimental program administered by the Toledo Public Schools. The program emphasizes helping parents learn how to stimulate their child's language and helping them to improve their attitudes toward their children. Available from: PS 504 969.…

This study assessed the effectiveness of five hours of distributed training on three-year-old children's comprehension and production of the passive, negative, possessive and negative passive syntactic structures. A comprehension test identified 20 children who did not evidence understanding of these structures. Subject were randomly assigned to…

The potential of television as an educational tool for increasing the intellectual competencies of preschoolers is discussed. (DB)

To determine the effects of two facets of the adult's input in a child's acquisition of syntactic structures and vocabulary, fifteen classrooms of kindergarten, first, and second grade children from four middle socioeconomic class schools were assigned to either a literature group (which provided exposure to reading rich in varied syntactic…

THREE EXPERIMENTS WERE CONDUCTED TO DETERMINE AND COMPARE THE EFFECTS OF VISUAL AND AURAL LANGUAGE LEARNING. SPANISH VOCABULARY ITEMS WERE LEARNED FIRST IN ONE SENSE MODE AND THEN RELEARNED IN A DIFFERENT SENSE MODE. TRANSFER EFFECTS WERE STUDIED FROM THE VOCABULARY ITEMS LEARNED TO PATTERNED (PICTURE-CUED) SENTENCES AND STORIES. TWO SAMPLES OF…

In this study, the Peabody Language Development Kit, originally designed for culturally deprived and mentally retarded children, was tested to see how it affected the psycholinguistic abilities and beginning reading development of normal children. Ninety-seven kindergartners were randomly divided into an experimental group who used the Peabody Kit…

For each of 4 years varying numbers (from 45 to 750) of 3- to 5-year-old children, mostly Mexican-American, Spanish speaking, participated in a program aimed at language development. Classes met 3 hours daily, five times a week, in small discussion-and-activity groups that included five children and one adult. The Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test…

Based on the belief that structured preschool activities aid in the development of disadvantaged children, this study attempted (1) to evolve a tutorial program to accelerate spontaneous development in disadvantaged children and prevent cognitive and language deficits, and (2) to assess growth of the infant's cognitive and language development…

This manual evaluates and describes an educational day care model after 1 year of development. The model was designed for 3- and 5-year-old disadvantaged youngsters who exhibit low scores on intelligence, linguistic, and perceptual tests. Model objectives were based on the following criteria: (1) effectiveness of the curriculum with children, (2)…

This document is the first year's report of a continuing study of the effects of two Head Start preschool experimental programs. Subjects were children from poverty areas in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Seven teachers who were most opposed to a Bereiter-Engelmann type highly academic structured program were assigned to Group I; and seven teachers least…

Sixteen Mexican-American 4-year-olds, classified as culturally disadvantaged, were administered a special program in an attempt to teach them the concept of adjectival comparatives in a short time. The children were divided into two treatment groups. One, the inductive or "discovery" group, was shown a picture of an object (for example,…