Acquisition of natural language has been shown to fundamentally impact both one's ability to use the first language and the ability to learn subsequent languages later in life. Sign languages offer a unique perspective on this issue because Deaf signers receive access to signed input at varying ages. The majority acquires sign language in (early)…

A revised form of MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory III (SCDI-III) was presented designed for Swedish speaking children aged 2 years 6 months-4 years 0 months with the objective to give a proxy measure of their language competence. The instrument contains a vocabulary checklist with 100 words, mainly predicates, from four areas;…

Transcribed the speech of 3 African-American mothers and their 19- to 27-month-old children over a 9-month period. Compared to the language of Euro-American children described in earlier studies, the language of these African-American children developed similarly in length and semantic-syntactic relations but included more talk about needs, wants,…

Presents methodological and factual analyses of children's use of imitative speech as a strategy in language acquisition. The impact of conversational interactions and picture-story books on the speech of one girl aged 20 to 32 months is demonstrated. Four methodological problem areas are analyzed. (Author/RH)