Children's understanding of the nature of polar terms and comparative terms between the polar opposites is discussed. (CHK)

Interpersonal functions of everyday caretaker speech usage are examined when addressed to toddlers, threes and fours. Results support hypotheses derived from Piagetian theory concerning early developments in ego-differentiation. (Author/RM)

Examined children's notions about segments of written sentences. Subjects watched a sentence being written and listened to it being read. The interviewer then asked questions about each word--whether or not it was written and, if so, where. Found that children used word order before phonics to figure out what was written in each segment of the…

This study focuses on children's reflectiveness about their drawings, and on the effect of other children's presence on the drawer's verbalizations about the drawing process and product. It was hypothesized that children would talk more about their representational efforts in the presence of other children, and that planning and evaluative or…

Data on the development of fundamental frequency patterns and the emergence of semantic relations during the "one word period" in child language development are reported in this study. The research focuses on the changes that occur as children progress from producing single words to sequences of single words and finally to producing…

This paper is a technical report of analyses carried out to determine the effects of parents' involvement in a prekindergarten program on their children's cognitive development. The research was part of a longitudinal study of the New York State Experimental Prekindergarten Program. A multiple linear regression approach was used to test hypotheses…

As part of a longitudinal study of the New York State Experimental Prekindergarten Program, the effect of degree of parental involvement in the program on children's cognitive development was examined. Parent involvement included employment in the program, school visits, home visits by school personnel, group meetings, and incidental contacts such…

A study was conducted to determine whether the child expresses linguistic knowledge during the single-word period. The order of mention in 65 sets of successive single-word utterances from five children at Stage 1, two to four years old, were analyzed. To elicit speech, the children were shown line drawings representing such situations as animate…

This study investigated the relationships obtained among verbal imitation, comprehension, and production when a stimulus sentence exceeded the child's short term memory. A total of 32 children, aged 3 to 5 years, took tests of comprehension, nonverbal imitation, verbal imitation, and production of structures expressing sequence ("before", "after",…

Explores the relations between temperament, communicative competence, and humor expression among four- and five-year-old nursery school children. Shows that ratings of communicative competence and various dimensions of temperament account for a significant proportion of the variance in the reported frequency of children's laughter and verbal and…

Two experiments examined preschoolers' and adults' relative reliance on visual and verbal information in identification of animals and machines. Findings include both children and adults can use either visual or verbal cues in categorization, and a stricter definition is used in identifying animals. Results suggest that a perceptual to conceptual…

Two children's spontaneous utterances containing the comparative structure are examined for their semantic content. Many comparatives are found to encode the notion "A has property X," and this use is often found in reference to the presence of X to an extreme, rather than a non-extreme, extent. The uses of the comparative are analyzed…

The research reported here was carried out to help establish the normal course of fricative acquisition as a basis for comparisons with abnormal development. Three questions concerning phonological processes were investigated as part of a larger study of fricative acquisition: (1) the phonological processes that underlie children's fricative…

A battery of cognitive, personal, and demographic tests were given to 216 children from Title I (of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act) schools, with and without previous school experience, and to 31 children from non-Title I schools. The effects of prekindergarten experience upon subsequent school experience were evaluated. The Title-I…