This paper outlines the degree to which age and verb vocabulary size are predictive of changes in the reported usage of English verbs that are irregular in their past tense form in a sample of more than 1,000 children. (Contains 40 references.) (JL)

Compared the language and play of U.S. and Japanese toddlers and their mothers. In both cultures, variability in toddler language and play was associated with variability in maternal language and play stimulation. U.S. toddlers were more advanced in productive and receptive vocabularies, whereas Japanese toddlers were more advanced in symbolic…

Children slow in expressive language development (SELD) at age two and matched normal toddlers were reevaluated at age four. Fifty-seven percent of SELD children showed chronic deficits in expressive syntax and morphology at reevaluation. Children with chronic language delay performed more poorly on narrative skill than their normal language…

Examines the development of toddlers' moral and conventional judgments and effects of language development on such judgments. Rudimentary distinctions between familiar moral, social and conventional transgressions are made during the child's third year. (Author/BB)

This article describes available models for structuring language intervention with toddlers who demonstrate a primary deficit in language acquisition. It examines ways in which intervention can change behaviors through facilitation, induction, and maintenance; how to select a service delivery system; effective teaching strategies; and clinical…

This study examines the processes underlying vocabulary acquisition, i.e., how new words are learned, in children with Williams Syndrome, a rare neurodevelopmental disorder. A Williams Syndrome group was compared to groups of normal controls in the range 3-9 years in four different experiments testing for constraints on word learning. (Author/JL)

A case study of a child who was stimulated with a cochlear implant at age 25 months is reported. Postimplantation, nasals decreased and other consonant types increased, particularly alveolars. The vowel space expanded, including increased production of diphthongs. Serial organization of speech postimplantation mirrored basic motor propensities in…

Language and reading outcomes at age 13 were examined in 22 children who were late talkers as toddlers. Compared to 14 controls, children who were late talkers had significantly poorer vocabulary, grammar, reading/spelling, and verbal memory skills, although they performed in the average range on most language and academic tasks. (Contains…

Forty monolingual, Puerto Rican, Spanish-speaking children (ages 2-3) were given two tasks designed to obligate production of nominative and object pronouns in both reflexive and non-reflexive forms. In contrast to English-speaking children, these children demonstrated a pattern in which nominate-pronoun use preceded object-case use. (Author/CR)

This study, with 180 deaf or hard of hearing infants and toddlers grouped into four age ranges, found highly significant interrelationships among the four categories of play and the four aspects of communicative development studied. The development of autosymbolic play, age of hearing loss identification, and symbolic object distribution accounted…

Evaluation of effects of manual signing on toddlers' verbal and nonverbal communicative behaviors in an inclusive preschool found that teacher signing was accompanied by increases in communicative interactions by toddlers with and without disabilities. No reductive effects on communicative verbalizations were observed for either group. (Contains…

Receptive language, prelinguistic communication, maternal responses, vocabulary level, and expressive language were measured at six-month intervals for 58 young children with disabilities or developmental delays and their primary caretakers. Results supported the importance of caregivers responding differentially to preintentional and intentional…

Five subtypes of directiveness were examined in the interactions of day care teachers with toddler and preschooler groups. Results confirmed that instructional context is an important mediator of teachers' directiveness and suggest that subtypes of directiveness have different effects on child language output. (Contains references.) (Author/DB)

Two hundred forty English-speaking toddlers (24- and 36-month-olds) heard novel adjectives applied to familiar objects (Experiment 1) and novel objects (Experiment 2). Children were successful in mapping adjectives to target properties only when information provided by the noun, in conjunction with participants' knowledge of the objects, provided…

Infants' understanding of "toy model-real exemplar" relations was assessed through preferential looking and habituation tasks. Results from the preferential looking task suggest that 18-month toddlers are just beginning to demonstrate comprehension of symbolic relations between iconic models and their real object counterparts. Performance of 10-…