Explores the transition of several children from spoken language to beginning writing. (HTH)

Two linguistically deficient children of deaf parents had been cared for almost exclusively by their mother, who did not speak or sign to them. Intervention led to erasure of idiosynchratic speech pattern in the older child and in increasing both children's expressive ability. Implications for language-learning are discussed. (PJM)

Points out the types of information teachers can learn from children's "mistakes" in language, reading, and writing; urges teachers to look at "mistakes" analytically rather than from a correctional perspective. Notes the need for teachers to understand the developmental nature of language skills and to observe each child in many contexts. (ET)

Evidence is provided to refute the suggestion, made by Macnamara et al. (1976), that four-year-old children perform logical operations corresponding to formal logic upon the sentential components of implicative verbs to produce indirect implications. It is argued that children use past knowledge plus additional premises to derive indirect…

Presents a rebuttal to Hidi and Hildyard's (1976) criticism of Macnamara et al.'s (1976) assertion regarding the ability of four-year-old children to grasp implicatives and presuppositions. (AM)

Examines the relationship between phonetic substitution patterns in child speech and sound change patterns in dialects of adult language, basing an explanation of these phenomena on acoustic data and language universals. (AM)

Presents a case study of an elementary school child with a learning disability to illustrate that both performance and disability have to be understood in terms of the social environments with which they are linked. (FL)

Children should develop communication competencies related to a broad array of communication situations involving speaking and listening as well as reading and writing. Five functions of communication (controlling, sharing feelings, informing, ritualizing, and imagining) are offered as the communication focus of a language arts program. (JMF)

This article reports on a study designed to obtain data on the first words understood and produced by eight infants. It provides a descriptive account of the earliest levels of language comprehension and allows comparison of lexical development in comprehension and production. (Author/CFM)

Results from correlated multiple-group component analyses of the Revised Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities (ITPA) subtests were given. Intercorrelations for each age group in the standardization sample provided strong support for the theoretical model underlying the Revised ITPA. (Author/MH)

Reports on a study designed to: (1) produce a multiple-choice test which would measure children's comprehension of figurative language, and (2) obtain information about the development of figurative language comprehension in children. (Author/AM)

Describes a research project in which the acquisition of French by two six-year-old boys, native speakers of English, was observed longitudinally. (CFM)

Examined children's generalization of familiar verbs to novel events. Findings reveal children aged 1;8 with the largest expressive vocabulary generalized the same verbs to actions with different agents, but not to actions different in outcome or manner of action and children aged 2;2 extended familiar action verbs to other actions different in…

Examines the contributions made by stakeholders such has learners, teachers, and parents to the language assessment process. Examines the relationship between experts and government in the United Kingdom. It is argued that participation by stakeholders is not limited to providing a forum but includes equipping teachers, parents, and others with…

Maternal ostensive naming was investigated in a cross-sectional study of 12 children. Display, demonstration, and pointing were coded with regard to whether and how coexisting speech referred to gesture focus. Maternal input was found to be significantly correlated with children's reported receptive vocabulary. (Author/JL)