By age two, a child begins to form complex sentences by joining two or more sentences or by embedding one sentence into another. Formation of conjoined structures is a simpler process and emerges earlier than that of embedding structures. This paper attempts to answer the following questions: (1) Do children produce or understand embedding…

In addition to the communicative end served by language learning, there is another objective: the discovery, by the student, of the system and the workings of his native language. The values of this objective include: (1) formative value: the possibility of achieving a better understanding of the fundamental and uniquely human phenomenon which is…

The Mackworth wide-angle reflection eye camera was used to record the position of the gaze on a display of 16 white symbols. One of these symbols changed to red after 30 seconds, remained red for a minute of testing, and then became white again. The subjects were 10 aphasic children (aged 5-9), who were compared with a group of 10 normal children,…

This paper offers some ideas on the types of behavior that can be considered precursors to language and that also lay the foundations for logic, mathematics, physics, etc. The paper posits the problem of whether a theory of language must be formulated before one can formulate a theory of language acquisition, or whether the reverse is true. The…

Sixteen middle class, four-person families were used in a study comparing communicative behavior of parents interacting with a younger child (3 or 4 years old) whose language skills were developing, and with an older child (6 or 7 years old) whose basic language skills were established. Combinations of sex of siblings and sibling position were…

The syndrome of childhood autism is typified by major abnormalities in language development, yet there are few systematic descriptions of autistic children's linguistic systems. This paper represents the beginning of a comprehensive investigation of the language of verbal autistic children and concentrates on comparing the syntax used by ten…

A number of first language (L1) research studies are examined in an attempt to discover whether the hypothesized similarity between L1 acquisition and second language (L2) learning has any empirical support. The relationship between age and language learning is considered to determine if there are changes in learning ability, rate of learning and…

Reviews studies which demonstrate that exposure to children's literature encourages verbal language development and reading competence in particular. (TJ)

Discusses the importance of providing opportunities for children to learn through talk with an adult and contains excerpts from transcripts of parent-child and teacher-student conversations. (DF)

Presents four articles in the context of workshop discussions on characteristics of environments that promote language development: (1) "Children's Conversations: Why are They Important?"; (2) "Ways of Talking: Respecting Differences"; (3) Paul's Talk: Teachers and Parents Look at a Child's Language"; and (4) "In the…

Examined the role of exposure to speech in children's vocabulary growth. Characterized vocabulary growth rates for children from 14 to 26 months of age. Found a relation between individual differences in vocabulary acquisition and variations in the amount of a mother's speech to her children. (BC)

A case study analyzed the babbling and speech production of an infant, aged 20 to 24 months, whose family members spoke Portuguese, English, and French interchangeably. Focus was on vowel production, choice of lexicon, and the relationship between babbling and speech in the interaction of his languages. The child's utterances were recorded in…

Yaaruilta stories are told by children of all ages in Yupik-speaking Eskimo villages in Alaska. These stories are illustrated by figures sketched in mud with a ceremonial knife. The sustained involvement and effort of the children engaged in Yaaruilta may aid cognitive development by encouraging the learning of culturally related geometrical…

The proceedings of this Georgetown University Round Table on developmental psycholinguistics are divided into four sections: (1) "Children's Language Acquisition: Linguistic and Psycholinguistic Theory"; (2) "Children's Language Acquisition and Communicative Disorders"; (3) "Developmental Psycholinguistics and Second…

Children's early utterances were studied to determine whether there are developmental changes in the content, context, frequency, and form of their speech and the degree to which the changes correspond to changes in Piagetian cognitive stage. Twenty children were studied; six were 10 or 11 months old, and the remaining 14 were distributed evenly…