One of a regular series on the status and progress of studies on the nature of speech, instrumentation for its investigation, and practical applications, this report covers the period January 1 to March 31, 1985. Studies summarized in the report cover such topics as (1) segmentation of coarticulated speech in perception (2) intrinsic time in speech production, (3) a theoretical model of phase transitions in hand movements, (4) repetitive naming and the detection of word retrieval deficits in the beginning reader, (5) linguistic abilities and spelling proficiency in kindergarten children and adult poor spellers, (6) errors in short term memory for good and poor readers, (7) longitudinal prediction and prevention of early reading difficulty, (8) temporary memory for linguistic and nonlinguistic material in relation to the acquisition of Japanese Kana and Kanji, (9) speech perception and the prelinguistic infant, (10) categorical trends in vowel imitation, (11) cognitive processes in reading, and (12) processing kinematic data. (HOD)