Examines infants' sensitivity to word units in fluent speech by inserting one-second pauses either at boundaries between successive words or between syllables within words. Results indicate that, by 11 months, infants are sensitive to word boundaries, and that this sensitivity depends on more than prosodic information or prior knowledge. (65…

Examines the use of finiteness markers copula "BE" and auxiliaries "BE" and "DO" in the spontaneous speech of children with specific language impairment. Focus is on whether the categorical distinctions between main verbs and auxiliaries and/or between the auxiliary types influence the relative order of emergence…

Responds to Major's (1996) and Ioup's (1996) criticism of this author's theory of language acquisition. The author agrees with both critics that abstract systems of phonology are acquired. He concludes that the proper study of language acquisition is to chart the course by which perceptual, motoric, and cognitive functions induce structure. (31…

Investigates the relationship between observational and checklist measures of vocabulary composition in preschool children. Results indicate that while the two measures are correlated, there are systematic quantitative differences between them, reflecting a combination of checklist, maternal-report and observational sampling biases. (22…

Examines conversational interaction in mother-twin-twin triads during play. Findings, paralleling those for mother-infant-sibling triads, reveal that these conversations are five times longer and elicit more turns from all speakers than dyadic conversations between a mother and a single twin and that the unique effects of triadic exchanges are not…

Explores the interrelationships between metaphor, play, and drama, and the roles they play in the development of sociolinguistic competence. Focuses on the role of symbolic play in the development of metaphor and on the importance of metaphor in discourse. Also examines the nature of autism, a condition marked by an absence of both symbolic play…

A study tested models concerning syntactic categories in early multiword speech by investigating overlap in contexts in which children (n=11) used determiner types. Results indicate children have little knowledge of relationships between different determiner types, suggesting development of an adultlike syntactic determiner category may be…

Preschoolers with specific language impairment (SLIs) and two groups of linguistically normally developing children described motion and change-of-state scenes while viewing a video, and patterns of verb use were analyzed. Although SLIs relied heavily on general all-purpose verbs, normally developing children used them more. SLIs made more verb…

Describes the transition from single to multiple word utterances in one child. The development illustrates the initial dissociation and later coordination of the temporal chaining of elements and meaning relatedness between elements and also the importance of repetition for the change from single-word utterances to meaning-related, multiword…

Examination of the use of short "tongue-twister" phrases in eliciting spontaneous slips of the tongue in five year olds indicated that the technique was a feasible and beneficial method for collecting spoonerism data from children. (24 references) (CB)

Longitudinal study of a deaf child's (with deaf signing and speaking parents) speech functions revealed that the child, before age three, rarely attempted speech imitation. By age five, the child had acquired new words through speechreading and had adjusted language modes to listener needs for flexible communication, and speech behavior assumed…

Examination of a two-year-old's early determiner-noun combinations suggested that early article use can be distributed across a variety of nouns, and that such usage does not seem appropriately characterized as a pattern of limited semantic scope. (CB)

Examined the communicative behavior of 40 maltreated and nonmaltreated 31-month-old toddlers and their mothers. Results revealed that maltreated toddlers followed a pattern of shorter mean length of utterance, less descriptive speech, and proportionally less relevant speech. (RJC)

The preverbal communication of four children, aged three-six with severe learning difficulties was observed in free-play sessions at home and at school. In two of the children, results indicated that the home was a more facilitating environment for communication than the school; results were inconclusive for the other children. (Author/JDD)

Explains seven functions of oral language used by preschool and primary school children and the importance of expanding them with Native American students. Suggests classroom application, evaluation methods, and ways for teachers to monitor their own use of language with students. Methods applicable to all grade levels. (TES)