Investigation of the perception and production of English voiceless fricatives in normally developing monolingual 3- to 5-year-olds (N=12) partially supported the hypothesis that certain sound substitutions by older children are perceptually based substitutions, typified by poor discrimination, while others are phonetic substitutions--phonemic…

The relationship between speech perception and speech production was investigated, by comparing five six and seven-year-old Dutch children who misarticulated the final consonant cluster /-ts/ with three control groups. Results indicate that the poorer the articulation proficiency of a group, the more variability there was in both production and…

Reviews research and empirical evidence to refute three first language acquisition myths: (1) comprehension precedes production; (2) children acquire language in a systematic, rule-governed way; and (3) the impetus behind first language acquisition is communicative need. (Author/CB)

Offers an organizational perspective designed to illuminate processes of symbolic development in both normal and abnormal populations. Focuses on the symbolic system of Down Syndrome children. Data support the claim that the symbolic system of these children is intact. (RWB)

Demonstrates that young autistic children suffer from deficits in social understanding and symbolic representations of other individuals. Data suggest that the core deficit appears to lie at the intersection of representational abilities and social experiences. (RWB)

This study, which uses the organizational perspective, synthesizes major contributions to the examination of symbolic development in abused children. Focuses on the interrelationship between and the impact of maltreatment on children's cognitive, socioemotional, and linguistic development. (RWB)

Examination of the use of the simple present verb tense by three-year-old children (N=2) indicates that analyses in terms of tense or aspect are not adequate to account for its use. Results indicate a need to recognize the way in which the form implicitly refers to norms and thereby entails a type of impersonal motivation. (Author/CB)

Describes the presence of a phonological selection strategy and consonant harmony rule in one child's developing phonological system. Evidence suggests that this constant harmony constraint operated across morpheme boundaries, causing a delay in the onset of two-word utterances and influencing the selection of words that could occur in word…

Explores the ability of 5 children aged 1 month to 30 months to initiate and maintain topics of conversation. The data demonstrate that at the beginning of development children simply attract attention to themselves as the topic of conversation and that later, as their interests broaden, their topic repertoire expands. (Author/SED)

Examines ways in which meaning is extracted in authentic language contexts and claims that whatever level of language people use deviates from some putative ideal. Such deviant use of language is common to everyday conversation. Examines two common contexts in which authentic but deviant language is the medium of communication. (Author SED)

Presents a model that predicts writing growth in children as a logical outcome of language acquisition. Provides a list of the kinds of language learning underway in the elementary school years and suggests that teachers may use this list to anticipate where and how such learning will influence the writing processes of children. (FL)

Reports on a study which followed the language development of a hearing son of deaf parents from his seventeenth month to twenty-third month. Various aspects of the child's language acquisition in sign and speech are described, as is his early ability to alternate languages (sign and speech) according to addressee. (SED)

Presents details of the linguistic modification in speech to children in the Mayan language, Quiche. Evaluates 17 features commonly cited for speech to children and notes seven additional features for Quiche: whispering, initial-syllable deletion, BT formed for verbs, a verbal suffix, more fixed word order, more imperatives, and a special…

Longitudinally examines interrelations between mother-child interactions and children's developing speech progress at six, 13, and 24 months of age. Children with large differentiated vocabularies showed superior in developmental progress relative to peers. Vocabulary progress was most closely linked to frequent responsive mother-child language…

Examined oset and acquisition of language comprehension and production in a language delayed child through analysis of a daily diary. In addition to confirming that the gap between comprehension and production was greater than that found in normal children, data from these observations can also be used to add to a general understanding of the…