Examined in a longitudinal study of children were correspondences and correlations between early language development on the one hand, and the manipulation of objects and play development on the other. There were developmental correspondences between the onset of five language landmarks (the emergence of first word, referential word, demonstrative…

The goal of this study is to find salient conditions and categories of conditions that seem to be important factors in parents' control over their children's early linguistic environment. Five families in a small academic community in the U.S. Midwest were identified. One parent was a native speaker of English (L1) and the other, a native speaker…

Two studies of the innovative semantic distinctions and innovative uses before the acquisition of conventional number classifiers by young Japanese children (aged 5-7 years) are discussed. The findings suggest that lexical acquisition is an intricate process which often requires more than simple mappings of forms onto categories, and that…

A single-subject study was conducted with a language-delayed male Native American child (age 3 years, 5 months), who exhibited minimal ability to communicate verbally and relied on gesture as a primary means of communicating. In order to identify and code the child's specific communicative intentions, the Coggins and Carpenter (1981) Communication…

Many classics in children's literature have metaphoric structures that enhance the structure of the plot. Metaphor is not an added frill to creative writing, nor is it the private province of poets. It is a necessary part of everyday language. One viewpoint on metaphor can be found in studies on child language acquisition. Children do use…

A study was conducted to examine children's developing perceptions of contextual factors surrounding their writing at home and at school. Subjects were 20 children from grades one through five, who wrote in a wide range of contexts. Children's writing products for three months were labeled for ownership, setting, audience, purpose, and genre,…

A rating instrument for describing nine structural characteristics of written compositions is presented and explained. (JH)

This study examined the relationship between the oral language fluency of different socioeconomic status (SES) children entering first grade and their success in learning to read, as measured at the end of the school year. Complete data were obtained from 27 upper, 24 middle, and 23 lower SES level students. Oral language samples were recorded in…

Forty-eight pupils from grades one, three, and five participated in a study of the extent to which children are able to use their prior knowledge and expectancies to aid them in integrating verbal material and in drawing appropriate inferences. Six stories were constructed for each of four inference levels, and 11 questions were prepared for each…

This paper begins with a review of recent studies of the development of phonology, syntax, and semantics between the ages of five and twelve. Studies in pragmatics (or the functions of language) are also considered. The paper then turns from investigations of oral language acquisition to an examination of the interplay between oral and written…

The purpose of this study was to gather information on the acquisition of non-Indo-European languages. The field work was conducted in the village of Faleasao on the island of Ta'u in the Manu'a group of American Samoa from June, 1968 to June, 1969. The data collected consists primarily of tape recordings of naturally occurring and elicited speech…

This paper examines children's early attempts at describing events absent in space and time, referred to as the "reportative function." The first part of the paper offers some explanations for the late emergence of the reportative function in young children's speech. Part two presents examples of children's attempts to report past events…

This study describes some aspects of the emergence of displaced reference (talking about topics other than those in the immediate context) in conversations between a child and her parents. The data consisted of tape recorded interaction with the child between 17 and 36 months. During this period, speech about the here and now always dominated, but…

Social cognition refers to that ability which makes it possible for one to infer another's covert, inner psychological experiences and to interact with that individual accordingly (Shantz 1975; Flavell 1977). Piaget (1926) maintains that the ability to decenter socially and to take into account the perspective of another develops gradually as the…

Noting that the question of how to evaluate the effect of an educational program on child language reduces to the question of how to analyze child language, the author discusses ways to measure those functional aspects of child language which may be most sensitive to both environmental interferences and environmental facilitations. (Author/JM)