Social cognitive abilities were evaluated in 23 deaf students (3 to 6 years old) through tasks requiring spatial perspective taking, cooperation, and receptive language. As hypothesized, language ability proved to be a prediction of both other variables, with the high correlation between language and perspective taking indicating a definite…

The STRIVE Program, an approach to identifying and serving culturally diverse (Black and Hispanic) gifted students, is described. The STRIVE model consists of six modules: gifted programing; receptive and expressive language training; counseling (individual and group); relevant curriculum providing transitory skills; a parent advisory board; and…

The goal of this panel was to develop the means to improve teachers' work on the basis of improved understanding of linguistic phenomena in school settings. The panel organized its research approaches and programs around ways in which effective communication in the classroom is different from everyday talk to which all children are enculturated,…

A transfer of stimulus control procedure was used to teach a 14-year-old retarded deaf girl manual signing skills. (CL)

A program for teaching relational vocabulary in classroom settings has three receptive steps for identifying the target word and three expressive steps for using the target word. These methods focus on the systematic modification of both example presentation (including non-defining characteristics and situational distractions) and response…

The effects of specific and nonspecific verbal corrections on vocational training of 38 low-moderately to severely mentally retarded adults were studied. Results demonstrated that specific verbal corrections enhanced acquisition by learners with higher receptive-language skills but did not do so for learners with lower receptive-language skills.…

Two language ability tests are discussed: the Receptive-Expressive Emergent Language Scale (REEL), measuring language competencies from birth through 36 months and the Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language (TACL), for children ages three to seven. Their efficacy in identifying language delays and in establishing criteria for effective…

The study analyzed communication performance of tenth grade learning disabled (LD) students (N=1,098) on the Florida State Student Assessment Test-II (a minimum competency test). LD students demonstrated better literal communication skills and poorer interpretive and written communication skills. Employers (N=240) also supported the importance of…

The study examined the expressive language, receptive language, and articulation skills of 30 Spanish speaking Puerto Rican children (ages 5-12 years) with language disorders (identified by fluent Spanish speaking evaluators). Results indicated both structural and pragmatic difficulties with little impact of English on their language development.…

Examined various kinds of sending-receiving relationships. Males (N=10) and females (N=10) served as both senders and receivers of nonverbal expressions. Females were found to be significantly better receivers but not significantly better senders than males. (Author/RC)

Investigates sentence processing in a visual-gestural language by testing signers' recognition for American Sign Language sentences. Results indicate that signers decompose a complex sign into its lexical and inflectional components during sentence comprehension and remember the meaning expressed by these components rather than remembering the…

Eleven oblique (correlated) factors were identified from an analysis of 182 mainstreamed hearing impaired students (grades 1 through 12). Two central factors were pinpointed: communicative attitude and receptive language. (CL)

This article highlights the fact that to date, emphasis has been upon promotion of the expressive communication skills of a person with a learning disability and challenging behavior. It is suggested that practitioners need to pay closer attention to the neglected and largely unmet need of receptive communication difficulties. (Contains…

A study compared 47 Spanish-speaking, predominantly English-speaking, and Spanish-English bilingual children's performance on a battery of semantic tasks. Children in all three groups achieved similar average levels of performance. The profiles of bilingual children in each language were somewhat different from those of the other children.…