Deaf children's spoken language output with a hearing peer and with a hearing mother.

Knowledge of how deaf children use speech outside the classroom or therapy room many enhance our ability to improve their speech in a variety of situations and with a variety of communication partners. Past research has shown that deaf children's interactions in informal settings with their mothers and hearing peers create situations that can foster improved linguistic skills. In the current study, the amount and intelligibility of spoken language output in 15 deaf children ages 4-5 to 9-8 years during 15 minutes of free play with their mothers was compared with output and intelligibility during a similar session with a self-selected hearing peer. The results, which indicated that significantly more speech was produced during the children's interaction with their mothers, are discussed in terms of future research.

A comparison of microcomputer-aided and traditional language therapy for developing communication skills in nonoral toddlers.

This investigation looked at the vocabulary learning and use, and social and communication growth of 8 severely handicapped toddlers under two different language conditions. A computer-based approach was compared to traditional intervention techniques. Treatment conditions were administered in randomized order by two graduate student clinicians. Communication growth was assessed by using a standard set of measures administered before the intervention, at midpoint between the two treatment conditions, and at the end. The results from this study indicated that the subjects made notable progress regardless of the treatment condition received.

Correlates of language development in language-disordered children.

This study organized a large data archive gathered over 8 years on 718 children with language disorders. Descriptive data categorized by demographic/background, physical/development, social/personality, and language/academic characteristics were analyzed to provide a broad description of this group of children. Sets of descriptor variables in five domains were identified from program records and were used to predict language performance at program entry and relative language improvement over 2-3 years. Age was the strongest predictor for all analyses. In general, the primary research factors in the study (53 variables representing IQ, language history, socioeconomic status, physical/neurological, and social-emotional background) failed to account very well for either language performance at program entry or for relative language gain. In prediction of pretest language performance, IQ and physical factors played the strongest role. The two factors contributing significantly to prediction of relative gain were IQ (although surprisingly weakly) and social-emotional status. Characteristics of those children who progressed most while in the program were identified.