To gain some insight into the problem of deviant speech development in low income populations, this study investigated the environmental factors that encourage the development of normal speech. Two specific questions were examined in this study: (1) If specific vocalized environmental sounds are presented contiguously with reinforcement, will…

To the question of whether Chomsky's hypothesized Language Acquisition Device (LAD) in young children is an adequate and feasible model of language acquisition, this paper answers that LAD should be reformulated so as to include semantics; that "informant presentation" rather than "text presentation" is responsible for language…

It is proposed that in studying the development of children's speech, the findings in the data are heavily influenced by what is expected to be found on the basis of our theoretical preconceptions. This phenomenon is actually more widespread than has previously been acknowledged, and our expectations about how children learn language may have to…