Predictions derived from the interactive activation (IA) model were tested in 3 experiments using the masked priming technique in the lexical decision task. Experiment 1 showed a strong effect of prime lexicality: Classifications of target words were facilitated by orthographically related nonword primes (relative to unrelated nonword primes) but…

We tested the effects of an intensive tact instruction procedure on numbers of tacts emitted in non-instructional settings (NIS) using a multiple probe design across 3 participants (3- and 4-year old boys with autism). The dependent variable was tacts emitted in NIS before/after the mastery of sets of 5 different stimuli. The non-instructional…

This curriculum guide, devised in the Speech and Language Development Project in the Milwaukee public schools, lists activities in decoding, memory, association, and encoding, and outlines four study units to stimulate language development. It also contains references to instructional aids (books, filmstrips, instructo flannel materials, records,…

Explores the importance of encouraging children to play with language, to use it as an art medium, to experiment with sounds and words, and to extend meanings. (Author/AJ)

The creation of a structure for oral communication in the lower schools and the universities is discussed. (CK)

A review of the literature on development of verbal language by sighted and blind children is followed by report of a study showing no gross differences in the language of intellectually normal sighted and blind adolescents. (CL)

Among 128 girls attending a private day school in Australia, it was found that changes in semantic aspects of language which occur at the formal operational stage appear to be related to whether a child is classified at the formal operational level on a pendulum problem. (RH)

Examines phonetic variation in multisyllable babbling of infants from 7 to 11 months of age. The investigation was to verify assumptions that, in infant vocal development, there is a systematic increase in the phonetic variation of these babbles, and separate stages of repetitive and nonrepetitive babbling are posited. (22 references) (GLR)

The purpose of this paper is to document the early Spanish speech development of a toddler, K, whose cochlear implant was activated at age 20 months. The contribution of K's developmental pattern to research is unique in that Spanish is the sole language of the home, as well as being the language of intervention up to 16 months postimplant (3…

Critiques an earlier article by M. Frauenglass and R. Diaz reporting their study on the interaction between private speech and cognition. Argues that their interpretation fails to regard how private speech is seen to regulate cognitive activity within Vygotskian psycholinguistic theory. (HOD)

Reports a study that indicates many functional speech defects at the first grade level are manifestations of slow development and should not be subject to therapy. (MH)

Reports two studies in which preschool and elementary school children's preference for certain strategies in copying a compound figure were interpreted in terms of a simple phrase structure. The phrase structure involved movements controlled with minimal degrees of freedom. (Author/JMB)