In face-to-face conversation, it's easy to react with shock and moralism to the incivility enabled by social media, easy to lament that we live in an era when communication has gone wrong. The digital era, however has also reinvigorated voice--both written and spoken--in other, less toxic, ways. We've seen a resurgence in oral composition (think:…

This article presents a review of the Comprehensive Assessment of Spoken Language--Second Edition (CASL-2), in which reliability, utility, and validity are analyzed and discussed. Some limited recommendations for practice are made based on a review of the information provided by the publisher for clinicians.

Background and Aims: This longitudinal study investigated the language skills, phonological working memory and lexical-tone perception of Mandarin-speaking late-talkers (LTs) and those with typical language development (TLD) at 27 months, while also examining their connections with novel word-referent mapping (W-R mapping) through eye-tracking at…

Assessing vocabulary knowledge is an important part of establishing language proficiency in bilingual children. The crosslinguistic lexical tasks (CLTs) provide a framework for testing vocabulary development in three-to-six year-olds using a standard procedure and comparable items for multiple languages. This study describes the development of the…

Shared reading is a powerful literacy intervention for the development of early communication and literacy skills. For students with extensive support needs who are beginning communicators, shared reading has the potential to support the development of initiation and expressive symbolic communication skills. This descriptive, multicase, mixed…

Assessing language learners' needs has been abundantly studied by a large number of researchers interested in English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and Needs Analysis (NA). However, task-based language needs of the students of marine (maritime) engineering have not been well-investigated, to the date. A qualitative research method was used. We…

This multiple baseline across-participants single case desgin study examined the effect of small group, phonological awareness intervention on the phonological awareness skills of three school-age children with Down syndrome. Each child with Down syndrome was paired with a typical peer to participate in small group intervention, three sessions per…

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to use an established model of working memory in children to predict an established model of word learning to determine whether working memory explained word learning variance over and above the contributions of expressive vocabulary and nonverbal IQ. Method: One hundred sixty-seven English-speaking second…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and hyperlexia (HPL) have both advanced word reading skills and a reading comprehension disorder, alongside impaired oral language. We developed a unique, parent-supported, tablet-based intervention aiming to improve oral and reading comprehension at the word-, phrase- and sentence-level, for…

One of the earliest indicators of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is delay in language and social communication. Despite consensus on the benefits of earlier diagnosis and intervention, our understanding of the language growth of children with ASD during the first years of life remains limited. Therefore, this study compared communication growth…

Extensive SLA research has led to a myriad of teaching and learning methods. Implicit and explicit English language exposures constitute important components utilized in English language education. In Malaysia, the English language status had been downgraded for a period of time after the pre-independence era resulting in reduced English language…

Children with hearing loss often attend inclusive preschool classrooms aimed at improving their spoken language skills. Although preschool classrooms are fertile environments for vocal interaction with peers, little is known about the dyadic processes that influence children's speech to one another and foster their language abilities and how these…

In this study, the researchers explored the impact of reading aloud on language acquisition for 12 infants and toddlers (6-22 months old) attending a preschool located in South Florida. The research team included university professors, a preschool director and two preschool teachers. A teacher assistant read a selected picture book to each child…

Aggression in early childhood has been found to predict negative outcomes later in life, including delinquency and psychopathology. The present study explored associations between young children's language, self-regulation, and physical aggression. A community sample of 126 preschool children aged 3 to 6 years (M = 4.87 years, SD = 0.87; 59% boys)…

The purpose of this exploratory study was to examine the longitudinal, bidirectional relations between receptive and expressive Spanish and English language and internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in a sample of 97 preschool children from Spanish-speaking, homes who were enrolled in a U.S. Head Start program. Eight cross-lagged path…