The behaviours of infants were observed using home videos, in an attempt to identify social difficulties characteristic of infants with autistic disorder. Three groups of infants were analysed: 15 infants who had later been diagnosed with autism, 15 infants who had a developmental or language delay, and 15 typically developing infants. Social…

Turkish mothers' self-efficacy beliefs and their interactional behaviors with their children with language delays are described and explored. Participants included 19 mother-child dyads. Mothers' interaction with their children with language delays was videotaped for 30 minutes in a free-play context. Regarding mothers' interactional behaviors,…

Rates of development for children who recover from early language delay and those with persistent problems were compared. Eighty-seven language-impaired children were assessed at the ages of 4, 4 1/2, and 5 1/2 years. The two groups were distinguished in initial level of performance but not in rate of progress. (Author/DB)

The study compared the categorization skills of first-grade children presenting three levels of expressive language development (normal, mild-moderate delay, and severe delay). Results indicated a significant difference in categorization skills between the children with normal expressive language development and each of the two expressive…

One of the primary diagnostic criteria for the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is the presence of a language delay or impairment. Children with ASD are now being identified at significantly younger ages, and prior research has consistently found that early language skills in this population are heterogeneous and an important predictor…

Data about communication breakdown were gathered through interviews of care providers and mailed surveys of special education teachers and speech and language pathologists of 17 children with cerebral palsy and significant language delay. Most care providers indicated that children used personalized communication systems and that these frequently…

Background: Previous studies of outcome for children with early language delay have focused on measures of early language as predictors of language outcome. This study investigates whether very early processing skills (VEPS) known to underpin language development will be better predictors of specific language and social communication outcomes than…

Describes a preschool class for handicapped children in which speech development is fostered through use of manual signing in combination with spoken language. (SB)

The study investigated the utility of a specialized test battery in measuring behavioral and cognitive characteristics of young, atypical preschool children (N=16). Results suggested existence of a syndrome of children with a pattern of delayed language, good visual skills, restricted interests, and easy disorganization. (DB)

Stutterers (N=201) and their nonstuttering same sex siblings were distributed identically in early, average, and late categories of language onset. Late talkers had significantly higher frequencies of articulation problems than did stutterers who were early or average talkers and their siblings. (Author/CL)

Interactions between phonology and syntax were inspected in continuous speech samples, from 30 speech-delayed children. Results indicated that two-thirds of the Ss displayed evidence of overall syntactic delay, whereas half showed some limitations in use of phonetically complex morphophonemes, their performance in that area being below the level…

This study was designed to investigate the effect of intonation on the auditory sequential memory spans of children normal in language development and those with delay. Analysis indicated that intonation as a cue did not facilitate recall of monosyllabic nouns presented in sequences of two, three, four, and five words. (Author)

Two studies examined word frequencies in toddlers' lexicons using the Language Development Survey (LDS). In Study 1, a high degree of consistency in LDS word frequencies was found in the lexicons of 758 24-month-olds. In Study 2, LDS word frequencies in 40 late talkers found both lexicon size and age of subject influenced the degree of consistency…

Notes the variability in child speech and language development. Explores the debate over whether and when to intervene with children whose speech is developing later than the norm. (HTH)

The present study investigated the validity of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) for a group of toddlers 30 months of age. Study 1 examined the concurrent validity of the CDI for a group of 38 late talkers. Significant correlations were found between the CDI and direct measures of language abilities. Study 2 used…