Restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRBs) are characteristic of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). However, compared to social and communicative impairments, less is known about their development, trajectory and etiology. This study explored RRBs in young children with ASD matched to typically developing (TD) children on non-verbal development.…

The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale was administered to 54 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) before age 2, and a matching group of 18 toddlers with developmental delay (DD). The group with ASD was more impaired on all scales of the Vineland than DD peers. When 18 ASD/DD pairs very closely matched on age, verbal and nonverbal…

Purpose: Verbal short-term memory (STM) and working memory (WM) skills predict speech and language outcomes in children with cochlear implants (CIs) even after conventional demographic, device, and medical factors are taken into account. However, prior research has focused on single end point outcomes as opposed to the longitudinal process of…

This dissertation investigates the acquisition of the passive. The apparent cross-linguistic delay of the verbal passive compared to other constructions suggests children's knowledge is somehow restricted, leading some to propose the difficulty arises because of syntactic maturation (Wexler 2004, Orfitelli 2012) or because of a heavy reliance…

Teaching vocabulary often began as a poorly organized, extensive list of new terms presented to students each week. Students recorded a selected list of words and sought their meanings. With time devoted to study and review of the new terms, students were considered prepared for a test on mastery by the final class session of the week. The…

The most popular activities from APA's successful "Activities Handbooks for the Teaching of Psychology" are gathered together and updated in this book of teachers' favorites. The lesson plans, which encourage active learning and involve the whole class, have stood the test of time and proven themselves to be entertaining, effective, and easy to…

This investigation examined the time course and sequence of prelinguistic vocal development during the first year of cochlear implant (CI) experience. Thirteen children who were implanted between 8 and 35 months and 11 typically developing (TD) infants participated in this longitudinal study. Adult-child play interactions were video- and…

Purpose: To determine the concurrent validity of the Conditioned Assessment of Speech Production (CASP; Ertmer & Stoel-Gammon, 2008) and data obtained from speech samples recorded at the same intervals. Method: Nineteen children who are deaf who received cochlear implants before their 3rd birthdays participated in the study. Speech samples and…

Most of us recall with pain the unpleasant experiences associated with the teacher's announcement that we would once again initiate a unit of learning designed to both widen and deepen our knowledge of the words of our language. This was said to establish the foundation for all of our future academic pursuits. A strong vocabulary was said to be a…

Storytelling is an imperative and innovative pathway to enhance learning due to the fact that such activity prompts learners to reflect to construct meaning based on their observations and knowledge. Therefore, to develop and enhance students' storytelling ability has become an important issue for both educators and researchers. Since storytelling…

Our qualitative literature review of 31 published studies found that (a) three major approaches are used in early childhood classrooms to support children's vocabulary learning--exposing children to advanced words, providing direct word-meaning instruction, and employing mixed-method interventions; (b) these practices support children's learning…

Shakespeare, who worked actively with words through punning, playing, and inventing, serves as the model for students to experience a deepening knowledge of vocabulary and love of words. Through instructional activities aimed at increasing word play, word exposure, and word consciousness, students gain the verbal capacity needed to understand…

Of all the developmental difficulties that may be present in childhood, language impairment is probably the most common. It is of vast importance to prevent cumulative negative consequences of these impairments. The present study evaluates the effects of a language and activity-based intervention programme on verbal and non-verbal performance and…

We have likely all heard of the so-called "Mozart Effect," the claim that listening to music increases intelligence. While the often-cited 1993 study never actually claimed such a profound conclusion, the resultant publicity focused the nation's attention on the evidence of music's positive effect on various types of cognitive skills. Such an…

The present study investigated three-year-olds' sensitivity to direct and indirect cues to others' knowledge states for word learning purposes. Children were given either direct, physical cues to knowledge or indirect, verbal cues to knowledge. Preschoolers revealed a better ability to learn words from a speaker following direct, physical cues to…