This study compared perceptions of parents of 64 children identified as either language delayed (LD) or language normal (LN) at age 2. Reassessment was conducted at age 5 or 6 for 26 families. Parents of LD children reported themselves to be less nurturing, less oriented toward independence training, less sociable, and more externally oriented…

This study used structured analogue situations to examine factors that might influence teachers' preferences and opinions about language interventions. These factors included respondent groups (preschool vs. elementary school teachers), type of treatment approach (naturalistic vs. therapeutic), person delivering the intervention (classroom teacher…

The durational characteristics of novel words produced in repeated trials were evaluated in separate groups of children with, and without speech delay (SD). Children produced disyllabic novel words containing either a trochaic or iambic stress pattern. Results of acoustic analysis indicated a significant interaction between trial number and…

The author explores the language processing ability of children with emotional disorders who have preexisting language delays (ED/LA) to determine whether language difficulties in this population are internal biological features rather than due to environmental variables such as lack of language stimulation in the home. A comparison group…

Researchers have hypothesized four levels of instructional dialogue and claimed that teachers can improve children's language development by incorporating these dialogue levels in their classrooms. It has also been hypothesized that enhancing children's early language development enhances children's later reading development. This…

The purpose of this study was to examine the short-term effects of a music education intervention on the receptive language skills of students in an at-risk early childhood program. The target population was nine students ages 3, 4, and 5 in an at-risk, inclusive classroom in a Chicago public school. The problem of language delay is indicated in…

Intended for parents of children with speech problems, the booklet describes specific types of speech disorders and provides suggestions for stimulating improved speech. The following types of speech disorders are addressed: delayed speech, articulation, stuttering, and hearing disorders. The developmental sequence of language is discussed, and a…

Speech samples of 14 normal 2-year-old children and 14 Down's Syndrome 5- to 12-year-old children were analyzed to investigate the structural complexity. Results from the Developmental Sentence Scoring procedure indicated that even when matched with normal children for mean length of utterance, Down's Syndrome Ss produced less syntactically…

This paper reports on the enigma of Casper Hauser (1812-1833), a child isolated from human contact for the first sixteen years of life. Upon his release (from incarceration in a cell), on the streets of Nurnberg, Germany in 1828, at the age of sixteen, he could barely walk, and could not talk. Although he appeared completely retarded, his senses…

The study summarized in this paper deals with the grammatical analysis of the spontaneous speech of approximately 150 children who are classified as mentally disabled; educable (I.Q. range 50-80). The performance of these mentally disadvantaged children is compared with the performance of 200 normally developing children by using a clinical…

This paper is a report of two studies of the relationship between intonation and syntax. An analysis of intonation was used to decide whether the pivot-like two-morpheme constructions of a one- and one-half-year-old girl were single lexical items or two separate lexical items. Further, the intonation contours connected with her linguistically…

The Speech and Language Development Project, funded under ESEA Title I, was designed to improve the verbal skills of economically disadvantaged children in the primary grades in the Milwaukee public schools, and was later expanded to include older (7-13) educable mentally handicapped youth. The 325 participants worked regularly with six speech…

The development and normal variability of children's speech is described, particularly in the periods of 18 to 24 months and 24 to 36 months. Vocabulary growth, speech articulation, and sentence construction (complexity and grammar) are major topics. Causes of speech problems are listed and a bibliography is included. (CTM)