A theoretical distinction is made between the growth of word meaning and the development of word sense in Vygotsky's terms. A recall from semantic memory task and the semantic differential were used to operationalize these two conceptions of meaning in a study of 72 children aged 5 to 10 years. Results replicated typical findings for the growth of…

The first part of this bibliography contains annotations of articles on the acquisition of voice onset time (VOT) as the marker of a phonological contrast, that is, the studies concern children who are already developing a phonological system. The most common questions are the following: (1) When children begin to produce initial stops, how are…

The research reported here was carried out to help establish the normal course of fricative acquisition as a basis for comparisons with abnormal development. Three questions concerning phonological processes were investigated as part of a larger study of fricative acquisition: (1) the phonological processes that underlie children's fricative…

IN A SPECIALLY ORGANIZED NURSERY SCHOOL SETTING, DISADVANTAGED CHILDREN BETWEEN TWO AND ONE-HALF AND THREE AND ONE-HALF YEARS OF AGE, EXPERIENCED CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT (CM) PROCEDURES TO MODIFY VERBAL BEHAVIOR. IN ONE ROOM OF A LARGE, PRIVATE DWELLING CONVERTED INTO A NURSERY SCHOOL, REQUISITE ANTECEDENT BEHAVIORS (RAB) WERE ESTABLISHED IN EACH…

THE AIM OF THIS RESEARCH PROJECT WAS TO IDENTIFY THE ARTICULATORY INACCURACY PROFILES OF CHILDREN ACCORDING TO THE ETIOLOGY OF THE CONDITION PRODUCING THE SPEECH DIFFICULTY. DURING THE FIRST PHASE OF THE RESEARCH, A BATTERY OF TESTS TO PROVIDE INFORMATION ON THE ARTICULATORY PATTERNS, VERBAL INTELLIGENCE, AND AUDITORY PERCEPTION OF NORMAL CHILDREN…

Sound play is important to child language development in that it contributes to the phonetic substrate, it is a factor in phonological development, and it is something to be learned as part of the socially acceptable use of language. Sound play progresses in three stages: (1) babbling, in which a gradual acquisition of phonetic units is built up…

This study investigated the role of gesture in communication development. Gestural categories, based on communicative function, were identified from longitudinal videotapes of one mother-child pair. The videotapes were made weekly or bi-weekly from the time the child was 13 months of age until she was 42 months of age. The results of the study…

Compared were two samples of 173 and 95 aggressive and normal 5- to 8-year-old boys on measures of verbal and cognitive development. Aggressive boys were significantly lower than normal boys on nonverbal tests but not on verbal tests. The pattern of test performance which distinguished aggressive and normal was consistent with the hypothesis that…

ERRORS (NOT MISTAKES) MADE IN BOTH SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING AND CHILD LANGUAGE ACQUISITION PROVIDE EVIDENCE THAT A LEARNER USES A DEFINITE SYSTEM OF LANGUAGE AT EVERY POINT IN HIS DEVELOPMENT. THIS SYSTEM, OR "BUILT-IN SYLLABUS," MAY YIELD A MORE EFFICIENT SEQUENCE THAN THE INSTRUCTOR-GENERATED SEQUENCE BECAUSE IT IS MORE MEANINGFUL TO THE…

A battery of cognitive, personal, and demographic tests were given to 216 children from Title I (of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act) schools, with and without previous school experience, and to 31 children from non-Title I schools. The effects of prekindergarten experience upon subsequent school experience were evaluated. The Title-I…

This paper reports on a longitudinal study of the acquisition of the voicing contrast in English word-initial stop consonants, as measured by voice onset time. Four monolingual children were recorded at two week intervals, beginning when the children were about 1;6. Data provided evidence for three general stages: (1) the child has no contrast;…

The present report covers five studies conducted on the development of impulse control and its role in the academic achievement of lower socioeconomic status (SES) children. The studies were performed on nursery school children and first graders. Results suggested that there are several different types of impulsivity, and that only one of these is…

This paper studies aspects of the conceptual basis for language acquisition, with a focus on the perceptual-cognitive skills used to assign meanings to words. A first assumption is that the correspondence between adult and child perceptual features allows for early communication. Apparently, in the first year, naming is characterized by…

After taking base rate measures of verbal behavior, using a specially devised Story Telling Test and selected sub-tests from the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities, 34 children with a mean age of 4-4, attending a year-round Head Start program, were assigned to matched experimental and control groups. The children in the experimental group…

Concerned with educational problems associated with low socioeconomic status, this pilot study in linguistic ecology was designed to substitute hard data for speculation about the nature and frequency of verbal behavior in the world of the poor child. To avoid self-consciousness and any restrictions on movement of the subjects, a small…