This study examined the verbal interaction of teachers and pupils to determine if the quantity and quality of teacher verbalization had significant impact on the verbal test scores of pre-school Head Start Children. Teacher's verbal behavior was scored by a modification of the Caldwell Observer Rating Form. Children were tested using the Wechsler…

This handbook serves as an introduction to the study of children's language development and as a supplementary aid in the training of research workers in the field of children's language learning. As a teaching aid, it is suggested this work be used with a film entitled "Psycholinquistic Research Techniques: Children's Language." Major chapters…

THE RELATIONSHIP OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOL STUDENTS' SPEECH FRIGHT TO THEIR SPEECH ABILITY, SPEECH ATTITUDES, AND SPEECH READINESS WAS STUDIED. SURVEYS WERE CONDUCTED AND DESCRIPTIVE DATA WERE COLLECTED ON SPEECH FRIGHT LEVELS AND SPEECH ABILITY OF 1,166 STUDENTS IN SELECTED ELEMENTARY GRADES. ATTITUDES OF TEACHERS TOWARD SPEECH FRIGHT WERE ALSO…

Research literature on childrens' causal understanding in oral and written settings is reviewed. Results show that maturation and task complexity both influence childrens' causal understanding. However, the findings are contradictory, and no generalizations could be made about which factors influence causal understanding and at which ages they are…

Explains the relationship between understanding a temporal or causal event and the ability to articulate and comprehend sentences about the event. The subjects of the research were 60 children from an Italian elementary school, 20 each from the first, third, and fifth grades. (CFM)

The multifaceted structure of sentence-completion test items was analyzed to explain verbal comprehension. The three stimulus constituents were technical, logical-semantic, and associative-contextual. Guttman's facet and order theories and smallest space analysis were used. Results confirmed the multiple skills involved in solving these tasks.…

This study examined the correlation between speech, language, and hearing screening results and demographic or family structure. Participating were 733 children in day care, between 3 and 6 years old, representing diverse economic and racial backgrounds. Speech, language, and hearing screenings were completed in 1989, 1993 and 1995. The Denver…

Describes 13 practical ideas for classroom teaching at the elementary level, including writing classmates' biographies, keeping a class diary, and improving emergent readers' vocabulary with word cards. (MM)

Examines vocabulary growth and development, looking at conventional vocabulary instruction and its outcomes. Evidence that word list drills do not promote vocabulary growth effectively is presented, and suggestions are given for fostering increased vocabulary. Promoting wide reading is advocated as the best approach. (SLD)

This study examines the relationship between the typical activities and social involvement young children experience in Singapore day care centers and the children's language development. Cognitive, physical and domestic activities and social involvement were observed in 16 day care centers and recorded using the Target Child Method of…

This longitudinal research examines the development of literacy skills in the context of an educational microcomputer implementation conducted to evaluate word processors and LOGO as tools for cognitive enrichment. Three classes including 87 children in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada are being followed from first- through third-grade. One…

Analysis of 165 studies (representing the testing of 1,418,899 subjects) that reported data on gender differences in verbal ability indicated a slight female superiority in performance. The difference is so small that it appears that gender differences in verbal ability no longer exist. A major goal was also to define age trends in the pattern of…

The first part of these findings is a report on a study of the characteristics of 120 Spanish-English bilingual children's speech over a two-year period in the classroom, on the playground, and at home. Three types of language measures were used as well as audiotaped speech samples taken in the three communication settings. Preliminary findings…

The data in this study are taken from an on-going research project investigating the development of the production of intervocalic consonants in Mexican Spanish. The total project includes both longitudinal and cross-sectional studies of forty children and uses both naturalistic observation and experimental methods. The data discussed here is from…