Evaluation of performance on the Preschool Language Scale of 18 low-vision children (two to four years old) found lower performance than for sighted peers, especially on the Auditory Comprehension Quotient, the Verbal Ability Quotient, and the overall Language Quotient. (Author/DB)

The article discusses several linguistic and nonlinguistic teaching strategies to foster language acquisition and increase spontaneous language in preschool children with language delays. Techniques include having the child complete unfinished sentences and intentionally violating an expected routine to elicit the child's language. (DB)

Assessment of category knowledge and receptive language skills of 16 autistic (3-6 years old), mentally retarded, and normal children indicated that the autistic children's knowledge of function, form, and color categories was comparable to that of the mental-age-matched mentally retarded and normal comparison groups. (Author/DB)

Research at the University of Pittsburgh will concentrate on developing assessment instruments and accompanying instructional strategies (including behavior modification training for parents) for autisiclike preschool children and their families. (Author/CL)

This article explores the kinds of cues young children use as a basis for extending early works in an effort to label novel referent objects. Proposals that intend to explain how first words are extended and used to refer to objects or events for which no words explicitly exist are discussed. (DF)

The amount and type of disfluences in the speech of language delayed preschoolers receiving language therapy (N=9) and not (N=9) and nine normal controls were examined. Comparisons indicated that Ss who received language therapy had significantly more word and part word repititions than the other two groups. (Author)

Discusses five studies of early reading which suggest that oral language does not necessarily have to precede reading and that if both are learned at the same time they enrich the child's total language base. (DD)

Investigated the role of peer language imitation in preschool children's vocabulary acquisition. Study I involved natural observations of children in day care situations. In Study II, children were introduced by naive peers was observed. (Author/SB)

Investigates whether patient animacy affected the acquisition of the passive construction of syntax of 32 children aged two-five years. Results indicate that children who were taught the passive with animate patients produced more passives in the teaching phase than did comparable children who received inanimate patients. (RJC)

Describes the "Message Board" activity in a preschool classroom (a voluntary sharing of important events or messages on large or student-sized chalkboards). Describes its three stages of learning; how to do it; social interaction; language development; and how it guides emergent literacy and is part of a developmental process. (SR)

Increasingly, young children are being exposed to computers at home and at school despite disagreement regarding the appropriateness and potential impact of technology on young children's development. Many views that predominant the debates lack empirical support and are too broad in their scope. This study examines the existing empirical studies…

Two experiments investigated 4- to 5-year olds' understanding of semantic relations and methods for incorporating new words into their lexicon. In one experiment, 24 children were shown a picture of a container and told that an object called "X" was hidden inside it. Children were asked questions about the object X and about…

The present study investigates the acquisition of basic language concepts with children 4 and 5 years of age, and the relationship of language to cognitive development as measured by performance on 10 Piagetian tasks. Factors of age, day care setting or kindergarten, and sex constituted the independent variables. Children 4 years of age proved to…

In a series of elicited production experiments, eight 3-year-olds and eight 4-year-olds were asked to explain three types of phenomenon: physical, psychological, and logical. Three main findings emerged from an analysis of the children's uses of the causal connectives, 'because' and 'so.' First, the children made very few errors in producing the…