This study of 44 late-talking and normally speaking toddlers with and without histories of middle ear involvement revealed no differences in expressive language outcome attributed to history of middle ear involvement. There seemed to be intergroup differences in outcome on measures of articulation that were associated with history of middle ear…

Vocal samples were collected from a child with cri du chat syndrome from the age of 8 to 26 months. Analyses indicated that the high vocal fundamental was characteristic of comfort state vocalizations of the child. There was a predominance of falling intonation contours and limited interutterance variation of fundamental frequency, and phonetic…

Seven environmental strategies are proposed to promote language use and communication skills in preschool classrooms. The strategies include having interesting materials available; placing some desirable materials within view but out of reach; providing small or inadequate portions of preferred materials; and presenting children with options among…

The self-monitoring and generalization behaviors of eight preschool children were observed as they progressed in management programs for their developmental phonological disorders. Self-monitoring behaviors varied in type, frequency, and point of onset in relation to generalization data. Self-monitoring behaviors did not always nor only occur in…

This study compared phonological patterns in the speech of 25 children prenatally exposed to cocaine and multiple drugs and with 25 non-exposed children (all children ages 22 to 51 months). Prenatal exposure to drugs was associated with an increase in the use of phonological processes. Results suggest that these children's speech development is…

Comparison of spontaneous language samples of 30 toddlers diagnosed with specific expressive language impairment (SLI) and language samples of typically developing toddlers found the SLI toddlers vocalized significantly less often, had proportionately smaller consonantal and vowel inventories, and used a more restricted and less mature array of…

Comparison of 18 mothers and their late-talking male toddlers with 18 mothers and their typically developing male toddlers found no significant differences in degree of synchrony between mothers and children, mothers' use of social cues, play synchrony, compliance, or overall communicativeness, although the late talkers made significantly fewer…

This study assessed the influence of a 10-week parent-child intervention group on the vocabulary development of 10 late-talking toddlers. Results demonstrated the efficacy of the focused stimulation approach in increasing overall and target vocabulary acquisition. Parents reported satisfaction with the program in terms of the child's vocabulary…

Five experiments involving 84 subjects investigated the effects of phonologic similarity of speech-production latencies to explore the role of articulatory phonetic features and reprogramming operations during pre-motor stages of production. Results revealed that shared manner was the most influential factor associated with the observed inhibitory…

Spoken language in 330 children with Down syndrome (ages 1-5) and 336 normally developing children (ages 1,2) was compared. Growth trends, individual variation, sex differences, and performance on vocabulary, pragmatic, and grammar scales as well as maximum length of utterance were explored. Three- and four-year-old Down syndrome children…

This study evaluated application of a revised criterion for the Language Development Survey, a parent-report screening measure designed to identify young children with language delays. The revised criterion generated fewer false positives, improved specificity, and improved positive predictive value while maintaining the high sensitivity and high…

This article offers a framework for collecting and analyzing speech samples to evaluate the phonological skills of young children, or of older children with delayed speech. A protocol for phonetic transcription is provided along with a discussion of the use of diacritics. The special problems of transcribing "fuzzy speech" are addressed. (Contains…

A meta-analysis was carried out of interventions for children with primary developmental speech and language delays/disorders. The data were categorized depending on the control group used in the study (no treatment, general stimulation, or routine speech and language therapy) and were considered in terms of the effects of intervention on…

Many parents question what is normal and what their kids should be doing at different ages. More and more, parents are turning to their local libraries for advice. Besides being empathetic supporters and referring parents to the rich resources within our libraries that detail language-development milestones for young children, librarians need to…

Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) is a genetic disorder which has widespread developmental consequences including motor, cognitive and language delay. Previous research on PWS children has focused primarily on phonological development and dysfluency. In the present study, the lexical development of a boy with PWS was investigated in a series of 18 play…