A study on the improvement of language ability among preschool children in Vermillion, South Dakota, showed a lack of family support and other family problems, such as child abuse and neglect, in the homes of the experimental group children. Educators must redouble efforts to educate parents and the society in general about children's needs. (BB)

A longitudinal study of the effect of mothers' communication modes on the language development of children (N=149) with severe or profound hearing loss indicated that children whose mothers used oral communication had higher scores on measures of spoken language, whereas children whose mothers used manual communication had higher scores on…

Study of a one-year-old's earliest use of prepositions found that spatial oppositions ("up-down") were learned first, and used in non-prepositional senses prior to prepositional usage. "With,""by,""to,""for,""at," and "of" were learned later and used to express case relationships and more often misused and omitted than the earlier-learned…

Investigates whether dyslexic children use word identification processes which are qualitatively different from those used by normal readers at the same stage of reading acquisition. Results suggest that dyslexics and normal readers use essentially the same processes to recognize words, but may differ in knowledge of correspondence rules. (RWB)

The study reports quasilongitudinal data on 10 children at 2:0 and 2:5, and another 10 children at 2:9 and 3:3. The analysis included word-initial and word-final phonetic inventories of consonant singletons and clusters and a summary of the relative frequency of seven word shapes. (Author/JDD)

Writing is now being viewed in its larger context of communication. Research suggests that young children use the more familiar communication systems like speech, drawing, music, and drama to add depth and meaning to their writing. Teachers must redefine their ideas about writing and children's communication knowledge. Cites six references. (MLH)

Investigates the effects of reading a series-format, many-volumed story to disadvantaged first graders. Results indicate that children who had been read to outscored children in the control classes on measures of decoding, reading comprehension, and active use of language. (SRT)

Indicates that (1) children's violations decreased with age; (2) in the dyadic context, fathers assumed a more directive role in response to children's violations than did mothers; (3) there were no between-parent differences between parents regarding reactions to children's violations in the triadic context. (NKA)

Reports on data collected in nine age ranges from 18 months to 71 months that examined children's ability to understand emotion-descriptive adjectives when used by adults and their own use of these words in productive vocabulary. (HOD)

Suggests that teachers examine the assets of natural language in children's homes for implications for language instruction at school. Discusses a children's story that can be interpreted as an analogy with instructional implications for creating natural language contexts in the classroom. (HTH)

Describes an investigation of the phonetic characteristics of children's second language acquisition, focusing on acoustical correlates of the voicing contrast for stop consonants, as produced by young native speakers of Arabic who were learning English as a second language. Neither age nor experience with English could predict phonetic…

Argues that learning to spell is a developmental process and reviews research showing that errors made by poor spellers can indicate the point at which that development has broken down. Discusses some of the linguistic strategies students must acquire to become proficient spellers and offers teaching suggestions for helping students develop a…

Explores a five-year-old's writing about his liking for spiders to learn about the relationship between children's investigations of the world as information (content) and their use of language to do so. Discusses implications for teachers of children's ability to deal with concepts and vocabulary associated with content materials. (HTH)

Describes the language development of two children, now aged 5 and 8, who acquired two languages--Spanish and German--simultaneously from birth and a third--English--when very young. Focuses on the following factors: patterns of interference, code switching, language dominance, the role of parents, the social environment, and the child's…

Presents abstracts of two award winning studies, one dealing with spelling in the context of writing for a purpose, the other with student-teacher interaction during reading. (FL)