This investigation intends to assess the effectiveness of a lexical recognition test (Meara & Buxton, 1987) as a placement tool that distinguishes among levels of two groups of students: Spanish heritage language learners (HLL) and second language learners (SLL). Three hundred and thirty university students from four different levels completed a…

Two studies examined language and understanding of scale models. First, children (N = 16; ages 2;4 to 3;5) received either the "standard" DeLoache model task or a "naming" version (in which children are asked to name the hiding location before retrieving a hidden object). Language ability positively correlated with performance…

Representational theory of mind (RTM) development follows a universal developmental timetable whereby major advances in reasoning about mental representations occur between the ages of 3 and 5 years old. This progression appears to be only absent in the case of specific neurodevelopmental impairments, such as autism. Taken together, this suggests…

Purpose: To evaluate the learning effects of a deductive language-teaching procedure when teaching a novel gender agreement verb inflection to children with language impairment. Method: Thirty-two 6-8-year-old children with language impairment were randomly assigned to either a deductive (N = 16) or an inductive (N = 16) treatment group. In the…

Pragmatic differentiation in bilinguals is the ability to use two languages appropriately with different speakers. Although some sensitivity emerges by 2 years, the effects of context on these skills and their relation to other developing metacognitive capacities have not been examined. The current study compared the language use of 28 bilingual…

Early language development sets the stage for a lifetime of competence in language and literacy. However, the neural mechanisms associated with the relative advantages of early communication success, or the disadvantages of having delayed language development, are not well explored. In this study, 174 elementary school-age children whose parents…

We investigated longitudinally the development of attention in two free-play tasks and the relation between attention in those tasks and language ability in toddlerhood. We observed developmental differences in attention from 9 and 31 months both as children investigated a single object and as they investigated multiple objects. Attention in these…

Metarepresentational theory of mind (ToM) was studied in middle- and low-SES five- and six-year-olds. Two aspects of ToM were distinguished. Reasoning about one's own mental states (Intrapersonal ToM) was assessed in the intrapersonal ToM task condition and reasoning about others' mental states (Social ToM) was assessed in the social ToM task…

Purpose: This study presents a meta-analysis of the difference in nonword repetition performance between children with and without specific language impairment (SLI). The authors investigated variability in the effect sizes (i.e., the magnitude of the difference between children with and without SLI) across studies and its relation to several…

Numerous studies show that children's language ability is related to false-belief understanding. However, there is considerable variation in the size of the correlation reported. Using data from 104 studies (N=8,891), this meta-analysis determines the strength of the relation in children under age 7 and examines moderators that may account for the…

This study examined whether a younger starting age is advantageous in a situation of minimal exposure to an instructed foreign language ([less than or equal] 4 hours classroom contact per week). Previous theoretical and empirical studies indicated there should be no advantage for an earlier start. Japanese college students who started studying…

Down syndrome is associated with severe deficits in language and verbal short-term memory, but the causal relationship between these deficits is unclear. The current study therefore investigated the influence of language abilities on verbal short-term memory performance in Down syndrome. Twenty-one individuals with Down syndrome and 29 younger…

The present study explored: (a) preschool children's awareness of their own talking and private speech (speech directed to the self); (b) differences in age, speech use, language ability, and mentalizing abilities between children with awareness and those without; and (c) children's beliefs and attitudes about private speech. Fifty-one children…

This study investigates the oral language skills of 8-year-old children with impaired reading comprehension. Despite fluent and accurate reading and normal nonverbal ability, these children are poor at understanding what they have read. Tasks tapping 3 domains of oral language, namely phonology, semantics, and morphosyntax, were administered,…

The present study investigated the influence of sex, handedness, level in second language (L2) and Faculty choice on the performance of phonological, syntactical and semantic tasks in L2. Level in L2 and sex were the most affecting factors. Subjects who achieved higher scores on L2 tasks had strong second language aptitude skills since they were…