The paper describes the "Early Social Communication Scales" designed to assess social and communication skills typically acquired in the first 30 months of life. Stressed is the role of the tester as an interactive partner for the infant. Reliability data suggesting reliability over time with the same partner are presented. (Author/DB)

The study was designed to assess the impact of a structured communications skills workshop of self-referred clients who expressed problems in feeling uncomfortable, awkward, or isolated in their relationships with others. (Author)

In response to article by William Coulson in this issue the author is in general agreement with the points made by Coulson but expresses the wish that Coulson had also discussed what differentiates encounter groups from other techniques and professional training needed to prepare them adequately. (CJ)

Findings indicate that lapses in conversation occur when one of the participants uses responses which fail to advance the topic. Analysis of the postlapse data indicates that subsequent to a lapse, the most probable strategy is for one of the participants to pose a question which the partner is obligated to answer. (PD)

Presents a conceptual and operational definition of one cognitive dimension of communicative competence--interaction involvement--based on Goffman's model of face-to-face society. Reports two studies to support the validity of the definition. Outlines the implications for future research on communicative competence as well as instructional…

To investigate the role of learning disabled (LD) children's nonverbal behavior in affecting adult judgments, 13 LD and 14 nondisabled (NLD) children in grades 3 through 5 were given instructions either to ingratiate or to act naturally with an adult interviewer while discussing their television preferences. (Author/SBH)

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Examines the transition from a single conversation to two conversations in a group larger than three by focusing on three distinctive properties of the schisming-inducing turn (SIT): (1) the changes in recipiency structure; (2) the sequence-structural properties of the SIT and its uptake; and (3) the topical properties of the SIT. (61 references)…

Sixteen children with developmental disabilities and 32 nondisabled children (all between 1.5 and 4.5 years of age) were placed in either a same- or mixed-age grouping of 6 children. Observation six months later showed that children in mixed-age groups took more conversational turns with partners with disabilities than did children in same-age…

The social/verbal interactions of six employees with moderate or severe mental retardation and six workers without mental retardation were observed in restaurant settings. Among findings was that interactions between workers with mental retardation and the job coach correlated negatively with the workers' initiation of interactions with co-workers…

Addresses the importance of teaching students with hearing impairments zero-order pragmatic-language competencies (PLCs), those communicative and interactive behaviors necessary in everyday social situations to avoid being seen as deviant. Among PLCs are taking turns, initiating or adding to a conversation, and making repairs when necessary. Many…

This paper discusses insights arising from a recent doctoral study in a New Zealand early childhood setting. I was interested in how young children learn to be part of the group and drawing on a socio-cultural framework carried out a qualitative case study to investigate the enculturation of young children into childcare settings. The particular…

The interactions of 10 maritally adjusted and 10 maladjusted couples were compared using a coding system based on the Leary circumplex. Major findings are (1) adjusted couples communicated more affection and submission than did maladjusted ones, (2) all couples were more likely to show complementary sequencing patterns with some interesting…

Drawing from data generated in more than 100 hours of interaction within 15 leaderless groups, a study investigated the interaction characteristics of emergent leadership--leadership that is earned through face-to-face encounters in a group. Each group was instructed to reach consensus decisions on two tasks, both of which provided the possibility…

This investigation, utilizing behavioral, sociometric, teacher-completed, child self-report, and academic measures, extends previous research (Gottman, 1977) on preschool children's social skills to a sample of school-age children. One hundred and nine third grade children served as subjects. A correlational matrix and a factor analysis were…