The purpose of this article is to discuss definitional and measurement issues as well as empirical evidence regarding temperament, especially with regard to children's (a)typical speech and language development. Although all ages are considered, there is a predominant focus on children. Evidence from considerable empirical research lends support…

This article documents the typological occurrence and interactions of two seemingly independent error patterns, namely Velar Fronting and Labial Harmony, in a cross-sectional investigation of the sound systems of 235 children with phonological delays (ages 3;0 to 7;9). The results revealed that the occurrence of Labial Harmony depends on the…

An African gray parrot, taught to employ the vocalization "want" before an object label so as to discriminate functional labeling from requesting, subsequently generalized "want" to novel situations. The findings of the study indicate that the training procedure might be applicable to intervention programs for humans with…

The case study involves a developmentally apraxic eight-year-old girl using a multimodal communication system. The Partners in Augmentative Communication Training program was implemented. Results after two months suggested some improvement in communication interaction skills. Issues regarding developmental apraxia and the use of augmentative and…

Teachers can deal with language disordered children through discourse analysis, a conversational teaching process aimed at getting children to talk. Steps include selecting a topic to talk about during the remedial language session, having teacher and child take turns talking about the topic, using requests to constrain the child's responses so…

This paper reports findings from fieldwork in situations that brought young children and child welfare practitioners together with the aim of diagnosing and treating children's communication difficulties. The findings suggest that communication difficulties tend to be treated as a property of the individual child rather than as an emergent,…

The author describes a Parent-Infant Program in which parents are trained to develop listening skills in their children with communication handicaps, which may or may not be accompanied by hearing impairments. Parents are seen in clinic settings, the Home Demonstration Center, in groups, and in their child's nursery class. The quality of the…

Purpose: This study examined the effects of expressive and receptive language levels on initiated and repaired communication acts by prelinguistic children with developmental disabilities. Method: In this descriptive study, participants were 45 children between the ages of 3 and 6 years who had severe delays in expressive communication. Some…

This conference proceedings document serves to establish the state of the art, highlight important methodological and conceptual issues, and identify priorities for future research in augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems. The document includes the papers from two opening presentations, issue papers and reactant papers, a…

A model for assessing the interactive sources of communication development in young children is proposed, focusing on the reciprocal behaviors of both adults and children. The model integrates theoretical and empirical findings and is designed for parallel diagnostic and treatment purposes in five areas: social play, turn taking, nonverbal…

This paper describes the development and use of language training procedures, referred to as cues-pause-point procedures, that rely on behavioral principles and simple and natural teaching procedures and that are exhibited in many normal parent-child or teacher-student verbal interactions. The procedures have been effective in teaching severely…