Examines the hypothesis that adults and children have media-specific conceptions of picturing and that the functional uses of photography and drawing differ across development. Results showed an age progression from viewing photography as only reflecting the real object to viewing it as a medium that allows for control and alteration of reality.…

Three- to ten-year-olds responded to a three-dimensional object by drawing it and/or verbally describing it. Two days later, they reconstructed the object in drawn or verbal form. Descriptive abilities increased with age. The children displayed differences in verbal and graphic description only when recalling the object from memory. (Author/RM)

Classroom second language instruction can be characterized as one of the following: focus-on-formS, focus-on-meaning, or focus-on-form. The book titled "Focus on Form in Classroom Second Language Acquisition" (Doughty & Williams, 1998) argues for the desirability of focus-on-form over focus-on-formS and focus-on-meaning, discussing the efficacy…

This paper discusses ideas which contribute to better understanding of the writing portions of Reading Recovery lessons, emphasizing the importance of helping the student monitor meaning during the composing and recoding process. Topics addressed in the paper are: (1) differences between composing and transcribing; (2) sources from which children…

Factors examined in this study indicate that group guidance experiences are an important agent of change in self concept, particularly in the way a person perceives how others see him. (RJ)

Children who learn to speak at an early age have mothers whose basic mode of disciplining is verbal. Charts; bibliography. (AF)

If the principles of languages are applied to the learning of arithmetic, it appears that elementary grade pupils are being introduced to mathematical symbols at too early an age. (MP)

Reports on an experiment describing the lexical development of a hearing child with a deaf mother and hearing father. Data confirm previous findings that (1) sign emerges before spoken word, (2) acquisition stages are similar in ASL and spoken English, and (3) the child initially develops one lexical system. (Author/AM)

The maternal linguistic environments of 12 normal and Down's syndrome (DS) children (ages 1-4 years) were studied and compared, with an eye toward isolating factors that might retard the acquisition of verbal communication in the DS children. (DLS)

Examined continuity in 94 children's vocalization and language development. Acquired data from parent reports of children's vocal and lexical development from 14 to 18 months, and from language development scales administered at 18 months. Found that early vocalizers comprehended and produced more words and suffixes than late vocalizers, and that…

Six preschool children, mostly from poverty-level backgrounds, were taught to make descriptive statements about objects. The category-descriptor statements were organized and sequenced into four clusters. As sets of new statements were successively taught and evaluated, the number and diversity of probed category and descriptor terms steadily and…

Two mentally retarded boys with autism and one girl with Down syndrome were successfully taught to initiate and play a ball game with an adult. The program targeted both nonverbal responses (such as ball contact and cooperative play) and verbal responses for play initiation and compliment delivery. (Author/JDD)

Sex differences in the development of verbal and mathematics constructs were examined using data from the High School and Beyond study (N=5,000). The results suggest that stereotyped sex differences favoring boys in mathematics and girls in verbal areas are diminishing and demonstrate the content specificity of academic effects. (SLD)