This study explored two aspects of language expression (defining words and repeating sentences) in samples of 26 Downs Syndrome (DS) and 26 mentally handicapped (MH) adolescents and young adults matched on intelligence and chronological age. Testing included language tests, a comprehensive audiological assessment, and computer-based memory…

The Educational Sign Skills Evaluation (ESSE) was developed to provide a means of identifying the dominant signing style of an individual and to provide feedback on areas of strength and areas in need of improvement. It provides an overall expressive skills rating as well as information on the type, level, and degree of understanding demonstrated…

An analysis of the use of attenuation (structural or semantic softening of the speech act) and sentence structure in elicited speech acts by normally developing, learning disabled, and developmentally delayed populations is presented. In the normally developing population (1) the development of attenuation strategies is different from structural…

In light of the correlation between musical and linguistic skills, a program of musical activities was designed to promote discrimination of rhythmic and melodic elements and the association of auditory stimuli with visual stimuli and motor activities. The effects of the program on the vocabulary of preschool children were evaluated and compared…

The third of five volumes (and the second of the four curriculum guides) of Project Teach 'n' Reach, a program to help regular classroom teachers teach nondisabled students about disabilities, deals with communication handicaps. The curriculum addresses the following issues under the topic of hearing impairments: anatomical structures of the ear,…

The phrasebook, designed for newly-arrived Hungarian residents in the United States, contains English phrases in 19 units covering a wide range of situations and introducing the daily activities of American life. They are presented in the form of two-line dialogues, are grouped by subject, and are selected for their directness, brevity, and…

A discussion of the types and uses of stories in second language instruction argues that the inclination to narrate is an omnipresent human phenomenon, whether attributed to nature or to culture. The story is a means of self-expression and communication that describes different forms of narrative, both literary and nonliterary. The uses and…

A study examined the use of a body awareness microcomputer program on young children as a predictor of early reading achievement. Subjects, 58 preschool and kindergarten students (prereaders) from a university laboratory school in the southern region of the United States, were asked to work in the microcomputer center in small groups to identify…

One of 10 documents developed for preschool programs for handicapped children, the manual presents classroom directed home training activities. The activities are based on such principles as the effectiveness of home instruction by a parent and the need for a parent to feel responsibility for the child's learning. Intended to provide teachers of…

A study relating mothers' language styles and techniques of family control to children's cognitive development was conducted with 163 urban Negro mothers from the lower and middle classes and their 4-year-old children. The following conclusions were drawn: (1) There was a significant negative correlation between responses of status-oriented…

This study examines ways in which children verbalize emotional experiences at successive age levels. Four groups of 16 boys and girls each drawn from the second, fourth, sixth, and eighth grades of a middle class private school in New York City were asked to describe happiness, sadness, love, anger, and fear. Raw protocols were scored according to…

A compilation of ideas and teaching methods to be used for remediation of learning problems is presented with skills coded to four different colors of paper. Auditory skills, visual skills, and auditory-visual association (all three both receptive and expressive) are discussed as are non-verbal skills. The stated purposes of this type of…

Some insight into the relationship between language and thought can be achieved through a comparison between American Sign Language and English. This paper discusses several studies on this topic and defines some of the problems. The author feels that the deaf using American Sign Language cannot be considered linguistically deficient. A structural…

This study investigated the relationship between dialect usage and performance on four language tasks designed to reflect features developmental in nature: articulation, grammatical closure, auditory discrimination, and sentence comprehension. Predictor and criterion language tasks were administered to 90 kindergarten, first-, and second-grade…

This book provides a summary of past and cutting-edge research on the acquisition of language by young children. It lends support to the behavioralist paradigm of language acquisition, namely, that maternal rewards and corrections should be integrated with perceptual, cognitive, and social learning conceptualizations in a skill-learning approach…