As handicapped children are mainstreamed, regular classroom teachers must become more skilled in identifying and remediating language deficiencies. Available from: Allen Raymond, Inc., P.O. Box 1223, Darien, Connecticut 06820. (GW)

A review of problems with using such manual communication systems as cued speech, fingerspelling, Signed or Manual English, American Sign Language, and Pidgin Sign provides a rationale for using a combination of American Sign Language and Pidgin Sign and a few markers from Signed English for a Total Communication system. (CB)

Results of two experiments investigating phonological skills of illiterate, unschooled adults and formerly illiterate, unschooled adults from shantytowns in Portugal suggest that learning to read, though not strictly necessary, plays a decisive role in the development of the ability of many individuals to focus on phonological length of…

A severely handicapped four-year-old with Down syndrome received training in comprehension and expressive use of Rebus symbols representing new words and generalization of symbol use to the classroom. Significant increases in comprehension and expression scores and generalized symbol use occurred. Development of verbal expressive skills were also…

Three experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of a training program implemented in a community setting for teaching receptive language skills to profoundly mentally retarded persons in a department store setting. Instruction was effective and store employees reacted favorably to the program. (Author/DB)

Analysis of a one-year-old's lexical development suggested factors causing overextensions: using known words for more recently acquired or unknown words; expressing incomplete knowledge of defining features of two or more similar meaning words; producing overextensions of preferred words; using phonologically simpler more than difficult words; and…

Examines the impact of specific language delay (LD) on peer interaction in preschool children. Interaction between three groups of dyads (normals and normals; normals and LD children; and between LD children) were studied. Normal children were more likely to initiate interaction with non-responsive partners and to dominate the interaction.…

Comparison of production and comprehension methods in teaching six 3-year-old language disordered children the relationship between semantic role and word order indicated the production method (the children produced sentences contrasting word order and meaning) was more effective than the comprehension method (the children responded to contrasting…

Receptive and expressive vocabulary tests were administered to 100 Indian and 106 non-Indian students in grades 1-3. Mean scores for Indian students were significantly lower on both tests. For Indian students only, the difference between the mean scores of the two tests was significant, with expressive scores lower than receptive. (JHZ)

Language delay became increasingly apparent with age, and more so in boys than in girls. There was no significant difference between mental ages derived from standard ability tests and corresponding age equivalent scores of a symbolic play test. A developmental progression of play similar to that seen in non-handicapped groups was found. (RH)

Purposes of the study were to determine whether training children to compare different parts of text improves detection of text errors and whether self-controlled training of comparison produces more durable use of the strategy. Children offered a self-instructional routine monitored comprehension better than did subjects given minimal training.…

A discussion of how the information explosion will require instantanious visual communication. (HB)

It is argued that dictation is a neglected technique for second-language training. Students' error patterns at three levels are presented to show how the technique can be used effectively for both teaching and testing, and to develop integrative skills and accuracy in both listening and writing. (Author/MSE)

The author responds to criticisms against his insights into the nature of thought and the "grounds of rationality" provided by the philosophy of Thomas S. Kuhn. (CJ)