The speech perception abilities of 27 children (ages 6-8, 15 with specific language impairment (SLI)) were compared using natural and synthetic versions of speech stimuli. Previously reported findings were replicated for the synthetic speech but not natural speech. Use of inflectional morphology in obligatory contexts by children with SLI was not…

The present research examined the quality of the phonological representations of French children with specific language impairment (SLI) and those with normal language development (NLD). Twenty-five children with SLI and 50 children with NLD matched on lexical age level participated in an auditory lexical decision task. The observations gathered…

Although the verbal operants that comprise Skinner's account of verbal behavior provide a seemingly complete description of the behavior of the speaker with respect to what is ordinarily called the expression of meanings, it may be shown that the account is intrinsically deficient in describing the receptive behavior of listeners with regard to…

This study explored the language skills of children with cochlear implants (CIs) compared to normal hearing (NH) peers. Standardized speech and language measures, including speech articulation, receptive and expressive vocabulary, syntax and morphology, and metalinguistics, were administered to 39 congenitally deaf children, ages 5 to 14, and a…

This study investigated the family reading behavior of 233 preschool children from low-income backgrounds who were attending Head Start. Parents completed a survey of their family reading behavior, including Child Reading, Parent Reading Interest, and Parent-Child Reading Interaction, and provided demographic data on their educational level,…

Background: Clinicians in the UK rely mainly on informal observations and structured and semi-structured tasks rather than standardized testing in their assessments of pre-school children referred with speech and language difficulties. The informal nature of the clinical decision-making process at this age is unsurprising given the dearth of…

The relation between theory of mind and affective perspective taking was examined in a study with 42 three- to five-year-olds. Children completed tasks measuring affective perspective taking, theory of mind, and receptive language abilities. Significant positive correlations existed between overall affective perspective taking and theory of mind…

By "reading," we mean the recognition and synthesis of sound groups in a language, from letters, groups of letters and punctuation marks; we understand in this connection the grasping of the morphological system of written language. Reading requires the discovery of the meaning of what is written, and the recognition of the intentions of the…

The primary purpose of this study was to compare, from a social/cognitive perspective, computer free play with more traditional preschool free play. Secondary objectives were to find out whether there were gender differences in the duration and type of computer play and whether receptive language differences or sociometric status affected the use…

Preschoolers are taken on many field trips during the course of their preschool experience. Yet, little research investigates the effects of such curricular offerings on children's developing social and intellectual skills. Intuitively, educators tend to agree that field trips are beneficial to children. However, findings of relevant studies are…

The equivalency of speech intelligibility scores obtained with the 10 individual lists within each of the Central Institute for the Deaf (CID) and the Revised CID (R-CID) Sentence Lists was investigated with 60 normal-hearing subjects. (Author)

The purpose of the study was to assess the reliability and the validity of the Ski Hi Language Development Scale which was designed to determine the receptive and the expressive language levels of hearing impaired children from birth to age 5. The reliability of the instrument was estimated through: (1) internal consistency, (2) inter-rater…