Children's language acquisition is viewed by developmental psycholinguists as a process of change in the organization of language processing operations. Normal children seem to acquire their native language by this process, rather than by eliminating specific mistakes. Preschool language develops in stages, and knowledge of where syntactic change is likely to occur should be used in planning and evaluation of early education programs. It is useful to know why certain syntactic constructions are to open to change in the preschool years. For example, three processes are involved in the production of elaborated noun phrases. They are (1) surface syntactic structure, (2) deep structure, and (3) syntactic transformations. These aspects of processing language can be facilitated by instruction in perceptual-motor skills, by use of referential cues in the language situation, and by role playing with serious communicational intent. Current language curricula combine these aspects in unsystematic ways, so that it is not clear what processes have been affected when a change takes place in a child's grammatical construction. Ultimately, language programs should be directed to the individual's specific language needs. Cognitive facilitation is not necessarily to be expected but is dependent upon the particular features included in each program. (NH)