Kindergarten children were observed in a classroom situation to discover communicative competence in the sociolinguistic area. These children demonstrated competency in awareness of regularities in use of language in the classroom, ability to publicize confusions, and variations in ways of speaking. (DF)

Twenty language-delayed children (age three to six) viewed a presentation incorporating object, action, attribute, and affective state words into a narrative script. In pre- and postviewing word comprehension measurements, subjects scored lower than children matched for chronological age and children matched for mean length of utterance.…

Stories were read daily at school and home to 32 children, aged 3-10, with severe learning difficulties. After eight months, almost all of the children showed improvements in verbal comprehension greater than gains of a comparison group, and the older children showed improvements in verbal expression. (Author/JDD)

This study investigated the effectiveness of a natural environment language training procedure that combined the mand-model procedure and the time delay procedure for the acquisition of noun signs and for the spontaneous use of the signs acquired. One autistic boy, aged 5 years, 4 months with no verbal imitation skills and few movement imitation…