PubMed · 3745338
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E Dromi, R A Berman. 1986. Language-specific and language-general in developing syntax.. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0305000900008114
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In this study children's ability to repeat either positive- or negative-polarity tag questions was examined. An elicited imitation task (Brown, Fraser, & Bellugi, 1963; Slobin & Welsh, 1973) was used to determine whether the patterns of repetition by children with lower-level language skills differ from the patterns of repetition by children with normal language skills. It was also asked whether children always adhere to the polarity-contrast principle in their production of tag questions, as suggested by Berninger and Garvey (1982). Adherence to the polarity-contrast principle was greater for the higher-level children than the lower-level children, but very few qualitative differences in the children's responses were found. Both sets of children violated the polarity-contrast principles at times and frequently repeated contrasting tag questions as matching tag questions. This finding clearly counters Berninger and Garvey's claim that preschool children always adhere to the polarity-contrast principle and corresponds to the spontaneous speech data of Richards (1988) and Todd (1982). Preschool children, it appears, have more than has been assumed to learn about the structure and function of English tag questions.
Most classification schemes differentiate elective mutism from language problems seen in the developmentally delayed population. Two preschool developmentally delayed children were treated for speech reluctance using modeling and contingency management. Employing a multiple baseline across therapists, it was found that these treatment components were effective in increasing frequency of labeling behavior in both children. Results were maintained at follow-up. Generalization to new words and to spontaneous speech were also noted, and suggest that characteristics of elective mutism in this population may be similar to what is found in the general population.
Data on academic success were analyzed for 37 hearing-impaired pupils who had been trained by the Written-Oral Language Method before school age. Seventy-one percent of pupils whose average hearing level was less than 89 dB and 77% of pupils whose hearing was 90 to 120 dB succeeded academically. Degree of hearing impairment, speech intelligibility, and gender were not important to their success. Linguistic competence evaluated just before enrollment in a normal educational setting at 6 years of age was the only factor significant to their academic success. However, we propose that the investigation of other factors, IQ and age at the start of preschool training program, must be analyzed in more detail in the future.