This brochure is intended to be a useful tool for assessing students' development along a continuum of oral language growth as well as for providing information about the competencies that students are expected to learn in preschool and first grade. On the continuum in the brochure, descriptors list specific behaviors that detail students'…

This study investigated the ability of 10 children (ages 6-7) with specific language impairment (SLI), 10 children of the same chronological age, and 10 children at similar levels of language functioning to maintain conversational topics. Results found that subjects with SLI contributed more inappropriate utterances and demonstrated difficulty…

This article contains excerpts of a speech given in 1935 to the American Philosophical Association. Professor Lewis discusses the importance of learning different contexts of words without learning grammatical terminology such as nominative possessive, and dative cases. He also examines the origin of modern abstract words from past physical…

Describes efforts of the NIE to coordinate the fragmented information that is being produced on reading to help make Federal programs in that area more effective. (Author/GB)

Article describes ways to help children learn how to give and take directions and improve their language skills at the same time. (GB)

Language form and communication style are two domains of verbal behavior. Two parents of language disordered children received six hours of training in one domain. Each parent demonstrated positive change in the trained and untrained domain. The duration and domains of parent training programs might be reduced while increasing efficiency.…

Sixty-four 3- and 4-year-olds were asked to identify another's view of a spatial array either verbally or by picture selection. Results indicate that verbalization leads to substantially more correct responses. Girls' performance was significantly better than boys' performance across both response modes. (Author/DB)

Comparison of 14 verbally gifted 6-year olds with equal numbers of chronological-age and mental-age controls using a structural-developmental analysis found that the gifted children organized story plots in ways typical of children 2 years older, elaborated on basic plot structures more than control groups, and demonstrated advanced language…

Examined the recall of 13-, 16-, and 20-month-old toddlers of laboratory events after delays of 1-3, 6, 9, and 12 months. Found that all toddlers remembered the events regardless of age or delay interval. Language ability at the time of exposure to the events predicted verbal expression of the memory after the delay. (MDM)

Some new approaches to the assessment and treatment of language handicaps suggest the need to examine relationships between verbal creativity and language performance. Data were collected from 40 normally developing white fourth, fifth, and sixth grade children, drawn from both urban and rural communities and from a middle socioeconomic level.…

STUDIES OF THE CLASSROOM VERBAL BEHAVIOR OF TEACHERS SHOW THAT MANY TEACHERS USE THE SAME RATHER NARROW VERBAL INTERACTION PATTERNS BECAUSE (1) THEIR OWN SCHOOL BACKGROUNDS DID NOT INCLUDE EXPOSURE TO TEACHERS WHO USED VARIED VERBAL PATTERNS, (2) THEY DO NOT NOW HEAR VARIED TEACHING PATTERNS, AND (3) THEY ARE NOT PROVIDED WITH OPPORTUNITIES TO…