Reports results from a detailed syntactic analysis of spoken language samples collected from poor and good readers at eight years of age. Results showed an undeniably strong association between reduced language comprehension and reading impairment at age eight, an association that appeared to strengthen by age nine. (SED)

Reports on two studies that examined the natural process of word learning in children 4-11 years old. The children hear the new words in a conversation, a story, and paired with a definition. Results indicate that children at all ages could acquire a partial semantic representation from a single exposure. (SED)

Two linguistically deficient children of deaf parents had been cared for almost exclusively by their mother, who did not speak or sign to them. Intervention led to erasure of idiosynchratic speech pattern in the older child and in increasing both children's expressive ability. Implications for language-learning are discussed. (PJM)