The acquisition of expressive sign language was studied in four autistic children (ages 10-15 years). Ss were taught expressive sign labels for common objects using a training procedure consisting of prompting, fading, and stimulus totation. The signing of three of the Ss was found to be controlled solely by the visual cues associated with the…

The study evaluated the ability of six learning disabled adolescents with normal language ability and eight learning disabled adolescents with deficient language skills to appropriately mark ambiguous referents. Subjects were compared with control groups of normally achieving chronologically age matched adolescents and children matched with the…

In the name of responsible argument, persuasive rhetoric need not eschew all the devices used by propaganda. Emotion is not only inevitable in discourse, it is the necessary base for action. Educators should not consider propaganda evil for the very reason they consider poetry good: its emotional power. This kind of thinking creates a specious…

This paper maintains that persuasive efforts in religious discourse must include a respect for the right of individuals to make free choices. Some of the unethical practices discussed are: deception and flattery, where the persuader, in a spirit of conquest, entices the listener into wrong decision-making; physical or psychological force, where…

The study evaluated the usefulness of 48 hours of Restricted Environmental Stimulation Therapy (REST) as a treatment for eight autistic children (between 5 and 11 years old). Ss were placed in a dimly lit room which contained only a mattress, told to ask for toilet facilities when needed, and then left alone except for when meals were brought in.…

The teaching of English in the United Kingdom has undergone change during the last decade and is presently in a state of flux. Current language concerns, mainly involving students 11-18 years old, may be viewed in three ways. Students' use of language should be encouraged in the classroom through expressive talk but with teacher guidance and…

Poetry provides language that is most likely to amaze, astonish, and delight reader and hearer. And children, before school spoils it for them, seem to have a natural affinity for poetry and verse. This paper discusses the ways in which children respond to poetry. The paper notes that relatively little research has been done to determine how…

It is difficult for an instructor to designate his philosophy in teaching composition when it is derived from a background in cultural studies at one school and from an "expressivist" program at another school. Furthermore, in naming his approach, he must take into account the influence of his feminist instructors as well as his own…

The study evaluated narrative production in seven severe to profoundly hearing impaired adolescents in an attempt to determine whether syntactic prowess would predict which subjects would be more adept at narrative production, in terms of the story grammar conventions used, and the cohesive devices used when narrating a story to a naive listener.…

Ten Down's Syndrome children (all 3-4 years old) and four nonhandicapped children and their mothers participated in a study of children's ability to respond to questions. Interactions of each of the 14 mother-child dyads were recorded on videotape and mother-child vocalizations transcribed. The number of appropriate, inappropriate, and…

Idiomatic expressions in American English provide an important clue to the speaker's values and attitudes, many of which are represented in bipolar language (e.g., "warm hearted"-"cold blooded,""walking on air"-"feeling low"). Most bipolar idiomatic continua which predict meaning also reveal positive and negative evaluations connected with…

Summarizes historical and contemporary examples of stories for children that contain a "magic element" or "oral sorcery" that complements the basic structure of beginning, consistent sequence of events, and full stop ending. (CRH)

This study examined word-finding ability, measured by accuracy and latency of response, in a group of eight preschool stutterers (mean age 4.2 years) and two groups of eight nonstutterers (mean age 4.4 years) matched according to age, gender, race, and receptive vocabulary. Results indicated that, as a group, preschool children who stutter and…

This study examined prior qualitative differences in the process of the emergence of verb use in two sisters when they were each 12 to 24 months of age (the older sister is 2 years and 9 months older than the younger sister). Daily diaries on both children were kept by the mother, who noted emergent structure and vocabulary. Systematic Analysis of…

The study was designed to determine if there was an identifiable pattern of language deficit in 10 children (6 to 12 years old) undergoing treatment in a hospital inpatient psychiatry ward for behavioral and emotional problems. Ss were administered the standard hearing and speech clinic test battery which included the Binet Memory for Sentences,…