Examines the process of language acquisition as well as scientists' understanding of the intricate process of learning to talk. Specifically addresses: (1) foundations of language; (2) prenatal period; (3) first month after birth; and (4) conversation. Also discusses adult-child activities that stimulate language-learning. (SD)

In a study of early functions of negation (rejection and denial), 48 children under age 3 were asked easy yes/no questions. The most likely age range for the appearance of error-free denial "no" at 1 year/8 months to 2 years/1 month supports the continuity theory of negation development. (Contains 27 references.) (Author/LB)

Eight 20- to 26-month-old children were exposed to 4 novel nouns in a game context over several weeks to determine whether, when, and in what ways the children would use them beyond their original linguistic forms. The majority were productive in their use of the nouns, indicating that the grammatical category for noun is operational by age 2.…

Summarizes a case study of the bilingual development (Italian/English) of a child in Australia. Data consist of recordings of her natural interactions from 18 months to her fourth birthday. The study focuses on how Christina learns the strategies of everyday interaction in the two languages. This is the first study to use the Systemic Functional…

Reviews research on quantitative and qualitative indexes of play, and relationships between play and language. Finds consistent relationships between duration and level of play throughout early development, and parallel developments in play and language. Indicates that measures of spontaneous activity and habituation in infancy predict…

Analyzed vocalizations/verbalizations from children acquiring English or French in later single-word period to identify trochaic bias. Found that neither language's vocalizations were exclusively trochaic. French/English differences in iambic productions and acoustic realization of accent were traceable to adult input. Distribution of trochaic and…

A methodological study of 33 2-year-olds shows that child speech occurs at about the same level in different settings (the familiar home vs. the unfamiliar laboratory), but that children speak more and in more differentiated ways with different people (mother vs. stranger). (Author/VWL)

In three studies, 2-year-old children communicated to a parent which two out-of-reach objects contained a sticker. Across trials, the objects were positioned in different configurations so that it possible or impossible for a child's pointing gesture to unambiguously specify one object. Results are discussed. (Author/VWL)

Verbal/vocal interactions of three Japanese mother-child dyads were examined in toddlers to determine whether mothers provide information that may facilitate the elaboration of child lexical forms during the transition from the prelinguistic to the linguistic period. Mothers were found to reproduce only the child's word like utterances, both well-…

Vocabulary development of a sample of 42 Italian children was evaluated through monthly administration of the Italian version of the CDI. Data collection started at age one for 32 children and a few moths later for the remaining subjects and continued until children's vocabulary reached 200 words. At fixed stages of vocabulary size, individual…

Two experiments investigated the Aspect First Hypothesis, which claims children initially use verbal morphology to mark aspect and not tense. The first tested 46 2- and 3-year-old children's comprehension of tense as it is marked in the auxiliary system using a sentence-to-scene matching task. The second changed the information available in the…

Childers and Tomasello (2001) found that training 2 1/2-year-olds on the English transitive construction greatly improves their performance on a post-test in which they must use novel verbs in that construction. In the current study, we replicated Childers and Tomasello's finding, but using a much lower frequency of transitive verbs and models in…

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…

Two hypotheses related to the emergence of multiword speech were explored: (1) that multiword speech follows developments in children's ability to map communicative intents to single-word expressions; and (2) that the acquisition of these mapping principles paves the way for the emergence of syntax. The developments consist of an increase in the…

With reference to Fenson's (1984) study of American children's pretend actions and utterances, this study examined the development of pretend actions and utterances in the play of 16 Japanese firstborn children. Subjects, whose cognitive and language development had been followed experimentally since the age of 6 months, were nonretarded…