It is suggested that generalizations about critical learning conditions and outcomes can be made within categories of learning processes but not across them. Implications of this proposition are examined. (Author/MM)

Found no correlations between types of play behavior and speech measures, that identification of objects upon verbal request was not related to any type of play behavior, and that comprehension of verbal requests for functional or representational play was positively correlated with the display of such play. Journal availability: J. B. Lippincott…

Assessed the intellectual development and academic achievement of 87 diabetic children during the first 6 years of their illness. At the initial diagnosis, intellectual performance and school grades were in the average range. Over time, verbal intellectual performance and school grades declined, whereas nonverbal intellectual performance improved…

CLASSROOM OBSERVATIONS OF 38 HEADSTART TEACHERS, TAKEN ON FOUR OCCASIONS BY FOUR DIFFERENT OBSERVERS, WERE SCORED FOR SUCH CONTENT CHARACTERISTICS AS (1) AMOUNT AND KIND OF COMMUNICATION WITH THE CHILDREN, (2) STRESS ON OBEDIENCE OR INTELLECTUAL VALUES, AND (3) PHYSICAL-MOTOR SKILLS. THESE SCORES WERE COMPARED WITH THE CHILDREN'S INTELLECTUAL…

Two studies were conducted to discover possible patterns in question acquisition. For the production study, questions were collected from 22 children aged two to eleven. In the comprehension study, 100 children, aged three to five, were tested. The test controlled syntax and vocabulary and varied specific "wh-" question-words. (Author/RM)

Describes a study showing that mentally retarded children and mentally normal children do not differ fundamentally in cognitive development within the framework of a particular cognitive training. (Text is in French.) (AM)

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

Diary observations of two-year-olds' over-extended word use have been interpreted as arising from the word's underlying semantic feature structure. This interpretation was rejected after a study of five children. The need to construct models of early word meaning reflecting certain early language development patterns is discussed. (CHK)

The comprehension ability of 36 children at three stages of telegraphic speech was assessed using active behavioral responses to declarative and imperative sentences. A significant increase in verbal and behavioral appropriateness with age was found for imperative and declarative forms. Results are compared with Shipley, Smith and Gleitman's…

How a child answers questions provides information about how he or she processes input. A child's early responses to questions at age one year, three months, were compared to her responses at one year, seven months, when she was in the two-word stage. (SW)

Explains the significance of stories in productive thinking by collecting and analyzing the reactions of 40 children of 3 and 4 years to 10 stories. Results indicate that stories can be used to understand preschool children's thinking and increase their productive thoughts. (BB)

This study examined the relationship between adaptive functioning and intellectual functioning in 18 children with autism and mental retardation and 20 children with mental retardation. The children with autism showed significantly more impairment in adaptive behavior composite scores, verbal reasoning abilities, socialization skills, and…

The purposes of this study include: (1) determining whether socioeconomic status (SES) or verbal ability (VA) exerts greater influence on childrens' performance of Piagetian tasks; (2) devising an instrument for measuring childrens' level of cognitive development which does not depend on verbal ability alone; and (3) adapting materials for teacher…

A phenomenon called "pragmatic variation" is discussed as a child's individual system of behavior in response to a question the child doesn't understand but realizes that he must verbalize an answer to. (NCR)