Compares story receipt and story sequencing variables of males and females in dyadic conversations. Significant differences exist in the amount of time spent as story recipients and with regard to two story sequencing devices--embedded repeat and marked repeat. No differences are noted in the number of sequential stories told. (JMF)

Sees word formation as an economical, important means of building vocabulary. Gives examples showing several different word-building patterns. Sees as a reasonable teaching goal the gaining of competence only in "receptive" word formation, i.e., recognition. The student can learn to build new words only from simple, frequently recurring…

Presents evidence supporting the prediction that violations of induced receiver expectations and the intensity of a persuasive message are mediators of resistance to persuasion. Positive and negative violations of expectations are examined in terms of counterarguing. (JMF)

This study examined the relationship between fast mapping and word learning and between comprehension and production of new words with 30 young children with specific language impairment (SLI). Results suggest that children with SLI may need to hear a new word twice as many times as other children before comprehending and independently using the…

A study examined the effect of listening practice on the ability of 20 young adults to comprehend natural speech and DECtalk synthesized speech. Response latencies of participants shortened in a similar fashion to sentences presented in both types of speech across a 5-day period, with latencies remaining significantly longer in response to…

Attempts to overcome methodological problems in studies of vocabulary size. Problems occur when trying to answer the following three questions: (1) how do we decide what to count as words; (2) how do we choose what words to test; and (3) how do we test the chosen words? (31 references) (Author/VWL)

The study found that, compared to normally achieving students, 24 students (age 10 and 12) with learning disabilities were less able in vocabulary production tasks and comparable in ability to use pictorial responses to demonstrate vocabulary knowledge. When equated in reading achievement, learning-disabled 10 year olds were poorer in composite…

Five children with severe educational retardation, aged 5-12, were involved in sign training in which the spoken words corresponding to signs were receptively known to participants. Whether signs were taught concurrently or in a serial fashion, signs taught by total communication were acquired faster than those taught by sign-alone training.…

The language development of 12 premature and 12 full-term Mexican American infants was compared at age 22 months. The Sequenced Inventory of Communication Development-Revised revealed that premature infants may acquire language at a slower rate than full-term infants, with expressive language more affected than receptive language skills.…

This study examined the language skills of 30 students (ages 9-16) with mild or moderate behavior disorders (BD). Results revealed that BD students fell a minimum of one standard deviation below the normative mean on all but one measure used. Further analysis indicated the students were having difficulty with both receptive and expressive…

This study compared 20 children (ages 8-14) with either autism or receptive developmental language disorder (RDLD) to 10 controls in their ability to detect frequent and infrequent randomly presented auditory stimuli. Only the children with autism demonstrated an abnormally small amplitude of the P3b, a component of the event-related brain…

A study compared family and professional assessment of the communication skills of 34 preschool males with Fragile X syndrome. Moderate agreement was found for expressive communication ratings, whereas agreement for receptive communication ratings was low to moderate. Parents rated their children significantly higher than did professionals for…

Examination of the influence of verbal working memory on sentence comprehension in 12 children with specific language impairment suggested that: (1) these children have less functional verbal working memory capacity than chronological age peers and (2) have greater difficulty managing working memory and general processing abilities than both age…

Comparison of 13 children with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss but normal language skills and 12 children with normal hearing and development found no significant group differences on three verbal metaphor tasks (comprehension, preference, and completion), and one visual metaphor task. (Author/DB)