There is no definitive recipe for augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) success, but its universal ingredients can be found at home. The main ones are: (1) Understanding that all children need to express themselves, however outgoing or shy they may be; (2) Willingness to embrace the technology that may help your child regardless of your…

Based on the belief that learning is deeper in meaningful contexts, Wilhelm makes a case for creating (authentically or simulated in the classroom) specific contexts that lead students into new identities, new perspectives, and new vocabulary. This is effectively accomplished by framing instructional units or curricular topics as inquiry,…

This study explored the use of the "Picture Naming Individual Growth and Development Indicator" (Picture Naming IGDI; Early Childhood Research Institute on Measuring Growth and Development [ECRI-MGD], 1998) with 11 preschoolers who have autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Children completed the Picture Naming IGDI on 7 occasions in 12 weeks. Results…

We compared the expressive syntax and vocabulary skills of 35 boys with fragile X syndrome and 27 younger typically developing boys who were at similar nonverbal mental levels. During a conversational speech sample, the boys with fragile X syndrome used shorter, less complex utterances and produced fewer different words than did the typically…

The current study examines whether associations exist between household chaos and children's early reading skills, after controlling for a comprehensive battery of home literacy environment characteristics. Our sample included 455 kindergarten and first-grade children who are enrolled in the Western Reserve Reading Project. We go on to test…

Background: Research has investigated late-talking toddlers because they are at great risk of continuing to experience language-learning difficulties once they enter school and hence are candidates for early intervention. It is also important to consider this group of children with regards to the immediate characteristics which are detrimental to…

Background: Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and specific language impairment (SLI) are common developmental disorders characterised by deficits in language and communication. The nature of the relationship between them continues to be a matter of debate. This study investigates whether the co-occurrence of ASD and language impairment is associated…

Many individuals with developmental disabilities show delays in the development of sophisticated communication skills. Listeners often misunderstand their unconventional means of communication, and breakdowns occur. A "communication repair" is a second attempt to communicate a message when a breakdown is encountered. Qualitative methods were…

Purpose: The primary purpose of this study was to investigate child impacts following implementation of a comprehensive language curriculum, the Language-Focused Curriculum (LFC; Bunce, 1995), within their preschool classrooms. As part of this larger purpose, this study identified child-level predictors of expressive language outcomes for children…

This study examined vocabulary acquisition of elementary students in grades kindergarten through fifth in one rural New Mexico school. The school had 277 students. Hispanic students comprised nearly 80% of the student body. All students received free lunch and breakfast. The 65 students who participated in the study were assessed using the…

Background: Clinical services in the UK are increasingly delivering "consultative" methods of intervention rather than "direct" intensive input for children with receptive and expressive language difficulties, yet there has been little systematic evaluation of these different intervention models. Aims: To investigate the…

To examine the relationship between syntactic processes in language comprehension and language production, we compared structural persistence from sentence primes that speakers heard to persistence from primes that speakers produced. [Bock, J. K., & Griffin, Z. M. (2000). The persistence of structural priming: transient activation or implicit…

Background: Verbal perseveration (i.e. excessive self-repetition) is a characteristic of male individuals with fragile X syndrome; however, little is known about its occurrence among females or its underlying causes. This project examined the relationship between perseveration and (1) gender, (2) cognitive and linguistic ability, and (3) language…

In a previous study, Parisse suggested that subject dislocations in French language (e.g. "la fille "elle" dort") could be considered as a marker of morphosyntactic development in children with normal language development. The present study aimed to develop this proposition and to confirm it with experimental data, more…

Books can be a rich source of learning for children and adults alike. In the present study, the contribution of shared reading and parent literacy to a variety of child outcomes was tested. Child outcomes included measures of expressive vocabulary, morphological and syntax comprehension, and narrative ability (story grammar, cohesion, and language…