Two language ability tests are discussed: the Receptive-Expressive Emergent Language Scale (REEL), measuring language competencies from birth through 36 months and the Test for Auditory Comprehension of Language (TACL), for children ages three to seven. Their efficacy in identifying language delays and in establishing criteria for effective…

The study analyzed communication performance of tenth grade learning disabled (LD) students (N=1,098) on the Florida State Student Assessment Test-II (a minimum competency test). LD students demonstrated better literal communication skills and poorer interpretive and written communication skills. Employers (N=240) also supported the importance of…

The study examined the expressive language, receptive language, and articulation skills of 30 Spanish speaking Puerto Rican children (ages 5-12 years) with language disorders (identified by fluent Spanish speaking evaluators). Results indicated both structural and pragmatic difficulties with little impact of English on their language development.…

Examined various kinds of sending-receiving relationships. Males (N=10) and females (N=10) served as both senders and receivers of nonverbal expressions. Females were found to be significantly better receivers but not significantly better senders than males. (Author/RC)

Investigates sentence processing in a visual-gestural language by testing signers' recognition for American Sign Language sentences. Results indicate that signers decompose a complex sign into its lexical and inflectional components during sentence comprehension and remember the meaning expressed by these components rather than remembering the…

Eleven oblique (correlated) factors were identified from an analysis of 182 mainstreamed hearing impaired students (grades 1 through 12). Two central factors were pinpointed: communicative attitude and receptive language. (CL)

This article highlights the fact that to date, emphasis has been upon promotion of the expressive communication skills of a person with a learning disability and challenging behavior. It is suggested that practitioners need to pay closer attention to the neglected and largely unmet need of receptive communication difficulties. (Contains…

A study compared 47 Spanish-speaking, predominantly English-speaking, and Spanish-English bilingual children's performance on a battery of semantic tasks. Children in all three groups achieved similar average levels of performance. The profiles of bilingual children in each language were somewhat different from those of the other children.…

Ten junior high students with developmental disabilities were studied using three conditions--different listening, repeated listening, and repeated listening with immediate retells--to observe the retention and fluency of delayed retelling. Results indicated that repeated listenings of an audiotaped instruction with immediate retells correlated…

Fifty-seven children, aged 23-28 months, were assessed using the Sequenced Inventory of Communication Development, mean length of utterance, and Minnesota Child Development Inventory (MCDI). The MCDI Expressive Language scale was found to be a valid predictor of expressive language. The MCDI Comprehension-Conceptual scale appeared to assess both…

Analysis of videotapes of 19 parent-child dyads during bookreading when children were 2.5 years old, and subsequent analysis of the children's paradigmatic thought organization at 3.5 years, revealed a significant correlation between superordinate level labels in parents' talk and 3 measures of children's paradigmatic organization. (45 references)…

The article describes a series of 10 games designed to improve the communication skills of pupils with severe learning difficulties. The games encourage attention development, initiating comments, and giving and receiving instructions. (DB)

Investigated how verb causality in question formulation affects the locus of causal origin for answers. Hypothesized questions formulated with action verbs cue the logical subject of the question sentence as the causal origin for answers. Reverse tendency was expected for state verbs. Verb type in question formulation was found to affect…

An imitative test of speech pattern contrast perception was administered to profoundly deaf children using hearing aids (n=76) or cochlear implants (n=18). Implant users performed, on average, similarly to individuals with an 88 decibel hearing loss, indicating that implant use can provide auditory speech perception capacity similar to that of…