In this paper, different means of assessing cognitive development in children with severe impairments in "both" their expressive language and their motor skills are reviewed. A range of techniques are considered, including traditional cognitive tests and behavioral and physiological measures, but these techniques are generally impractical and…

This review examines twenty years of research (1985-2005) on African-American students in science education. This analysis identified three types of research studies on African-Americans. First, a series of studies provided status reports of African-American students' performance in science. Second, a series of studies highlighted cultural…

The goal of the middle school organization is to create a learning environment that matches the developmental abilities and needs of young adolescents. This research attempts to operationalize that goal by integrating reading and English classes in large urban middle schools. The Student Team Reading and Writing (STRW) program reconfigured…

The Consensus Validation Conference on Augmentative and Alternative Communication Intervention brought together researchers, educators, parents, clinicians, and persons who use Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) systems to arrive at consensus on best practices and benefits of AAC. Questions addressed include: definition of AAC and…

This study examined the expressive communication and language of seven hearing mothers and their deaf infants. Total communication intervention programming was begun before 9 months of age, and communication behaviors were observed during free play when infants were 12 and 18 months old. Other data were obtained in structured interviews with…

A Writing Anxiety Scale (WAS) was developed. A literature review and interviews with writing instructors identified nine components of writing behavior (Empathy, Expression, Evaluation by Others, Motivation, Organization, Procrastination, Self-Esteem, Technical Skills, and Writing Anxiety). A pool of 146 items were written to reflect the…

The book summarizes the current state of knowledge concerning language development in children with Down Syndrome (DS). The first chapter reviews language development in normal children, noting such stages as gestures, first sounds, development of understanding, first spoken words, and the two-word stage. The next chapter examines language skills…

A kindergarten teacher implemented a practicum with her students in an effort to improve their receptive and expressive vocabularies. Five kindergarten students were selected from the 23 identified as language-impaired. Four of these five participated in the practicum to its completion. During a 10-week period, target children were involved in…

Discourse is basically interactive. This is clear in conversation, but the concept can be extended to written language. Written text can be analyzed as spoken discourse. The methodology of English text studies has adhered too much to a textual approach and even extended it to spoken data. Another approach would be to begin with the spoken form of…

A review of the research on learning-disabled students suggests that these students often exhibit language deficits that are not readily obvious. These language deficits create problems in understanding social interactions and written and oral directions as well as problems in expressing ideas both orally and in written form. The term language…

The guide was designed for speech pathologists, bilingual teachers, and specialists in English as a second language who work with Spanish-speaking children. The guide contains twenty illustrated stories that facilitate the learning of auditory sequencing, auditory and visual memory, receptive and expressive vocabulary, and expressive language…

Although much has been said about the influence of reading upon writing, little information is available concerning the effect of writing practice upon reading comprehension. During one experimental study, college freshmen students in a remedial reading course wrote in the expressive mode for ten minutes a day. This simple act of writing, without…

A method is described for teaching writing to students for whom English is nearly a "first" language by virtue of the nature and circumstances of their use of it. The basic tenet of the approach is that the student can only learn to write well if he has a belief in himself and in the value of his own responses. To write well, the student must…

Presented is the Infant Stimulation Curriculum (developed by the Developmentally Delayed Infant Outreach Project) for parents and teachers to use with children who are developmentally between birth and 36 months of age. Published in a card format at a sixth grade readability level, the curriculum includes introductory cards providing information…

Black Arts Literature--of which the New Black Poetry is the most important manifestation--emerged during the past decade as the appropriate artistic counterthrust to Black Power. Rhetoric and shouting aside, this new thrust was, on a very basic level, simply a call to black folks to redefine Blackness and re-evaluate the Black Experience. For the…