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PubMed1989

Children's language acquisition.

Child language acquisition has only recently become an important research topic for developmental psychologists, although the universal appearance of language during the second year of life has long fascinated philosophers. For normally developing children, language emerges spontaneously as a means of talking about what they know so that they can accomplish social goals important to them. Some children, however, need to be taught. This article reviews current issues in child language acquisition and suggests a research agenda for helping those children who have difficulty mastering the fundamentals of language.

Child↗
PubMed1985

Rule invention in the acquisition of morphology by a language-impaired child.

This paper presents a case study of a language-impaired child who invented a unique morphophonologic rule for signaling the distinction between English singular and plural nouns. Conventional linguistic-phonetic analysis indicated that the child was producing the distinction suprasegmentally rather than segmentally. Acoustic-phonetic analysis of matched singular-plural noun pairs was performed in order to determine quantitatively which suprasegmental acoustic cues he used to signal the distinction. Results of a multivariate analysis of variance revealed that singular and plural productions were significantly different from one another on various fundamental frequency, duration, and intensity parameters. This example of a child's linguistic creativity is offered as further evidence in support of a model of language acquisition that emphasizes the cognitive aspects underlying linguistic regularities in child language. Clinical implications are also discussed.

Child Language↗
PubMed1977

The verbal environment of a language-impaired child.

A child with a language handicap presents a potential conflict for the adults with whom he interacts. In terms of age and physical development, he may present cues that ordinarily elicit complex speech from adults. His language performance, however, may be comparable to that of a much younger child. This study involves a detailed analysis of the speech addressed to a 4.7-year-old language-impaired boy and to his normal-speaking female cousin (4.6 years) by the boy's mother, father, and baby-sitter. Each adult interacted with each child in a five-minute free play and a five-minute story-telling situation. Quantitative measures of the speech of the adults included word rate, disfluencies, type-token ratio, and mean length of response. There was a strong tendency to present the language-impaired child with fluent, short, and simple sentence patterns, as compared to his peer. Qualitative analyses of sentence types again showed that simplifications were made in speech to the boy, and that the adults used sequential sets of sentences with the language-handicapped child that were similar to those used by mothers of normal, but much younger children.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Vocabulary competence in early childhood: measurement, latent construct, and predictive validity.

We systematically examined relations among 6 measures of child language derived from 3 sources, including observations of the child's speech with mother, experimenter assessments, and maternal reports. A total of 184 20-month-olds and their mothers contributed complete information about child language comprehension and expression. Correlations of child language measures with socioeconomic status and maternal education were accounted for, as were correlations of child language measures with mothers' verbal intelligence, maternal report measures with mothers' tendency to respond in a socially desirable fashion, and experimenter assessments with child social competence. Structural equation modeling supported (1) strong relations among child language measures derived from observations of the child's speech with mother, experimenter assessments, and maternal reports; (2) the loading of multiple measures of child language from different sources on a single latent construct of vocabulary competence; and (3) the predictive validity of the vocabulary competence latent variable at 20 months, as well as receptive vocabulary specifically, for both verbal and performance IQ (verbal better than performance) at 48 months. Neither an index of child monologing (a nonvocabulary language measure) nor symbolic play (a nonlinguistic representational measure) covaried with vocabulary competence. Girls consistently outperformed boys on individual language measures, but no differences emerged in any model in the fit for boys and girls.

Concept Formation↗
PubMed1984

Nature and boundaries of phonologic categories: a case study of an unusual phonologic pattern in a language-impaired child.

This paper presents a detailed examination of an unusual phonologic pattern reflected in the speech of a language-impaired child. The most salient characteristic of this child's speech was the use of [s] in final position of all words except those containing final oral or nasal bilabials. Her pattern seemed best described as reflecting only two canonical forms for word production, CVC and CVCVC, and a dominant word-final category possessing a family resemblance structure with [s] as the prototype. Training was instituted to increase the number of appropriate categories in the child's phonologic system. Training on word-final [f] and [d] was successful. However, training on [d] seemed to result in the creation of a second category with family resemblance structure. The clinical and theoretical implications of this child's phonologic pattern are discussed.

Child Language↗
PubMed1985

The pediatrician's approach to the preschool child with language delay.

A systematic approach to the child with suspected language disorder includes screening of expressive language, receptive language, general development, and hearing. Various screening approaches and tools are discussed. Diagnostic categories and associated referral patterns are recommended.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1975

Analysis of a father's speech to his language-learning child.

This study analyzed the speech of a father to his language-learning child. Father-to-child speech was taped daily over a two-week period when the child was three years old. Results indicated that declarative (35%) and interrogative (34%) sentences occurred most often. Smaller percentages of exclamatory (9%) and imperative (6%) sentences were found. The father rarely repeated his own utterances and almost never expanded his daughter's utterances. The child rarely immediately imitated her father's utterances. Comparisons are made of aspects of father-to-child speech with mother-to-child speech as reported in previous investigations.

Adult↗
PubMed1994

Prediction of school outcomes based on early language production and socioeconomic factors.

Early differences in family SES, child language production, and IQ were related to outcomes in early elementary school in the present prospective, 10-year longitudinal study. In a prior study of family interactional variables associated with language learning, major differences in parenting (i.e., time, attention, and talking) were found to be associated with differences in child productive vocabulary between 7 to 36 months of age, and child IQ, favoring higher-SES parents. Lower-SES children were exposed less often than higher-SES children to diverse vocabulary through their parents' attention and talking, and they were prohibited from talking more often. In the current study, 32 children involved in the earlier study were repeatedly assessed between 5 to 10 years of age, while in kindergarten through third grade. Results indicated that SES-related differences in child language prior to school were predictive of subsequent verbal ability, receptive and spoken language, and academic achievement assessed on standardized tests in kindergarten through grade 3. However, none of the predictor variables were related to direct measures of elementary schooling. When combined with a composite SES indicator, early child language production significantly increased the variance accounted for in the prediction of elementary language and academic competencies in each subsequent year in elementary school. Implications are discussed in terms of the stability of performance on language and academic performance measures of children who entered school with different early language learning experiences, and the need to consider early home- and school-based intervention designed to prevent or ameliorate these trends.

Child↗
PubMed2000

Language disorders: a 10-year research update review.

OBJECTIVE: To review the past 10 years of research in child language or communication disorders, which are highly prevalent in the general population and comorbid with childhood psychiatric disorders. METHOD: A literature search of 3 major databases was conducted. The child language literature, describing the domains of language development--phonology, grammar, semantics, and pragmatics--is reviewed. RESULTS: Disorders of grammar, semantics, and pragmatics, but not phonology, overlap significantly with childhood psychiatric disorders. Receptive language disorders have emerged as high-risk indicators, often undiagnosed. Language disorders and delays are psychiatric risk factors and have implications for evaluation, therapy, and research. However, they are often undiagnosed in child mental health and community settings. The research has focused mostly on monolingual English-speaking children. CONCLUSION: Awareness of basic child language development, delay, and deviance is crucial for the practicing child and adolescent psychiatrist, who must diagnose and refer relevant cases for treatment and remediation. Future research needs to address the growing language diversity of our clinical populations.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1961

The language-handicapped child. Coordinated evaluation by physicians and educators.

Seventy children were studied during 1959 in a special school program because of major language problems. A team of medical and educational personnel studied each child during a ten-day school enrollment. The results of the medical and educational studies were of great value in establishing the correct diagnosis and devising a suitable educational program for the children.

Cerebral Palsy↗
PubMed1999

A deaf child's language acquisition verified through text retelling.

The researchers studied a method of mediation with a deaf second grader. Language needs were identified through transcription of the child's retellings of weekly basal stories. These were either targeted for adult-mediated conversations during reading activities or left "untargeted but tracked." During two intervention phases, the student's performance on semantic and syntactic features of interest incorporated into retellings improved when an adult facilitated; when an adult was intentionally unavailable to mediate retellings, documentation of positive linguistic changes indicated internalization or acquisition of these features. Analysis of language behaviors that did not improve during unmediated retellings indicated a need for continued mediation. Untargeted but tracked behaviors that went unchanged during data collection further documented that language behavior changes resulted from adult mediation, not maturation. The child achieved 1 year's reading growth during the data collection period (1 academic year) on the Gates-MacGinite Test of Reading (hearing norms; W. MacGinite & R. MacGinite, 1989). Text retelling methodology proved useful, although group design study is warranted.

Child↗
PubMed2000

Parental Involvement in Deaf Children's Education Programs as a Predictor of Child's Language, Early Reading, and Social-Emotional Development.

This study examined the impact of school-based, teacher-rated parental involvement on four child outcomes: language development, early reading skills, and positive and negative measures of social-emotional development. The 28 children were assessed for outcomes between 9 to 53 months post-graduation from a birth-to-3 early intervention (EI) program for children with hearing loss. Other factors included in the study were child's hearing loss, mother's education level, mother's current communication skills with her child, and maternal use of additional services beyond those offered by the early intervention program or the child's school program. Parental involvement in children's school-based education program is a significant positive predictor to early reading skills but shares considerable variance with maternal communication skill for this outcome. In this study, maternal communication skills and the child's hearing loss were the strongest predictors for language development. Maternal use of additional services was the strongest predictor to poorer social-emotional adjustment. The study's findings indicate that although parental involvement in their deaf child's school-based education program can positively contribute to academic performance, parental communication skill is a more significant predictor for positive language and academic development. Factors associated with parental involvement, maternal communication, and use of additional services are explored and suggestions are offered to enhance parental involvement and communication skills.

Journal Article↗
PubMed1979

The operant training and generalization of pronouns and a verb form in a language delayed child.

The purpose of the present investigation was to train the correct use of three pronouns and the verb from "are" in a language delayed child and to assess the generalization of these trained responses to untrained stimuli. Within a multiple base-line design the four selected behaviors were sequentially trained using the techniques of positive reinforcement, modeling, and punishment for inappropriate responses. At succeding stages of training, probe trials were conducted to assess the extent of generalization of trained responses to untrained stimuli. A 100% generalization of trained responses to untrained stimuli was obtained for each of the four linguistic behaviors.

Child, Preschool↗