The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between coaching provided with bug-in-ear technology, the frequency of the early childhood educators' use of targeted communication strategies and children's expressive communication. Four multiple-baseline single-case design experiments were completed to evaluate these relationships.…

The effectiveness of dialogic reading in increasing the literacy interactions between English language learning parents (ELL) and their preschool aged children and children's expressive language development were studied. Twenty-one ELL parents of preschool aged children received dialogic reading training every other week for a ten-week period.…

Relations between bilingual children's patterns of conversational code-switching (responding to one language with another), the balance of their dual language input, and their expressive and receptive proficiency in two languages were examined in 115 2½-year-old simultaneous Spanish-English bilinguals in the U.S. Children were more likely to…

The study aimed to examine the effectiveness of the Adapted Dialogic Reading Program (ADR) on the language and early literacy skills of Turkish kindergarteners from low socio-economic (SES) backgrounds. The effectiveness of ADR was investigated across six different treatment conditions including classroom and home based implementations in various…

Research Findings: This study examines the effects of low- and high-cognitive demand discussion on children's story comprehension and identifies contributions of discussion, initial vocabularies, and parent reading involvement. A total of 70 English learner preschoolers took baseline vocabulary tests in Portuguese and English, were randomly…

The present study explored the home literacy environment for Chinese ESL kindergarteners and examined the relationships between home literacy practices and language and literacy skills. Ninety Hong Kong Chinese ESL kindergarteners were assessed for English vocabulary, phonological awareness, letter knowledge and word reading. Their parents…

Scalar inferences are commonly generated when a speaker uses a weaker expression rather than a stronger alternative, e.g., "John ate some of the apples" implies that he did not eat them all. This article describes a visual-world study investigating how and when perceivers compute these inferences. Participants followed spoken instructions…

This study examined whether language skills and nonverbal cognitive skills were associated with clinician-observed restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRBs) in a sample of 115 children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) at ages 2 and 3. By age 3, RRBs were significantly negatively correlated with receptive and expressive language, as well as…

Using the Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey, language comprehension and production were compared in a sample of 101,250 children aged 2 ; 00 to 9 ; 11 and a focus subsample of 38,845 children aged 2 ; 00 to 4 ; 11 from sixteen under-researched developing nations. In the whole sample, comprehension slightly exceeded production; correlations between…

Purpose: To gain a better understanding of language abilities, the expressive macrostructural narrative language abilities of verbally expressive adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome (DS) and those with fragile X syndrome (FXS) were examined. Method: The authors evaluated 24 adolescents and young adults with DS, 12 male adolescents and…

The purpose of this study was to investigate if college students' verbal aggressiveness and argumentativeness traits promote their tendencies to engage in instructional dissent (i.e., expressive, rhetorical, vengeful). Participants were 172 undergraduate students who completed a self-report survey measuring these traits and their dissent practices…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which a parent-implemented language intervention improves language skills in toddlers at risk for persistent language impairment (LI) as compared with a group of typically developing toddlers. Method: Thirty-four children with LI between 24 and 42 months of age were randomly…

Since the seminal work of Broca in 1861, it is well established that language is essentially processed in the left hemisphere. However, the origin of hemispheric specialization remains controversial. Some authors posit that language lateralization is genetically determined, while others have suggested that hemispheric specialization develops with…

Purpose: The authors investigated continuity and discontinuity of vocabulary skills in a population-based cohort in the Netherlands. Method: Mothers of 3,759 children completed the Dutch version of the MacArthur Short Form Vocabulary Checklist (Zink & Lejaegere, 2003) at 18 months and a Dutch translation of the Language Development Survey…

Mean length of utterance (MLU) is a frequently used measure of the expressive language of young children. The suggested conventional, contemporary, clinical practice is to calculate it from a language sample of a minimum of 50 to 100 contiguous intelligible utterances. This practice places considerable strain on professionals working with young…