Landau and Gleitman's experiments investigating a blind child's meaning for look, as it applied to herself, were replicated with a three year old boy who was totally blind, and had no concomitant disorders. Several commands to look were presented within informal play sessions. Responses to the look commands were compared with responses to instructions to touch, listen and taste. Experiments were video recorded for subsequent analysis. It was found that the blind child associated the haptic perceptual modality with the visual verb, in that an instruction to look at an object elicited manual exploration of the object. His meaning for look was distinct from his meanings for the other perceptual verbs. These findings were consistent with Landau and Gleitman's findings. Landau and Gleitman's interpretation, of how a blind child's mastery of visual terms bears on the word/meaning mapping problem, is critically discussed. / Medicine, Faculty of / Audiology and Speech Sciences, School of / Graduate

This study evaluated the effectiveness of a procedure for teaching a caregiver to shape vocal language in a young child with autism. A multiple baseline design was employed to assess caregiver use of shaping procedures, child vocal language progress, and the social validity of the procedures. Following baseline and introductory sessions, the coach and caregiver reviewed video from the previous session and the coach gave descriptive feedback to the caregiver about her performance. Following the review of the videotaped segment, procedures to increase skills were selected and practiced. Rates of responsive opportunity arrangement, model presentation, responsive model delivery, and responsive event delivery, as well as the child's rate of requests, vocalizations, diversity of vocalizations, and social validity were measured. Data suggested that the procedures effectively taught the skill of shaping to a caregiver, which in turn seemed to produce increases in the child's vocal responding.

Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-01T18:24:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 rosineide_costa_falcao.pdf: 575315 bytes, checksum: a7c2a1498382e8b10100fa3efafd31ba (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-07-17 / The Multimodality in oral narratives is the subject of this research study, being relevant in the sense that multimodal resources are conducive production senses infant oral narratives. Thus, this work proposes investigating multimodal features that favor the production of meaning in children's oral narratives. We base our research in the context of multimodal functioning of language, backed by McNeill (2000), Kendon (1982, 2000), Cavalcante (1999, 2009), Fountain (2011) and Fountain et al (2014), and in studies of oral narratives and children's literature, with contributions from Marcuschi (2003), Bettelheim (1979), Matos (2009), Franz (1981), Sisto (2012), Abramovich (2000), Gillig (1999). The methodology was qualitative, observational nature - the type case study. To collect data, seven children attended a school municipal school system of Recife, enrolled in the second grade of elementary school. A classic tale adapted from children's literature and a unique tale were recorded in audio and subsequently presented to children at two different times. After heard the tales for the second time, children recounted each. The retellings were filmed to be transcribed through the ELAN software (Eudico Linguistic Annotator), which enables simultaneous record speech and gestures. Selected as an analysis category the verbal and gestural plan plan, comprising the multimodal envelope, adopted by Ávila Nobrega (2010) and Source (2011). We know that the child's first contact with the text is: speaking, hearing, feeling and seeing with the eyes of imagination. With data analysis, we conclude that the narratives of the stories there was a prevalence of verbal production associated with gesticulations. But in classic tale, we see greater variety of gestures and details in the narrative because of sedimentation of multimodal resources at the known history. In the contemporary tale, we find limitations of the information in the narratives and greater scarcity sign, perhaps not known by children. / A Multimodalidade em narrativas orais é objeto de estudo desta pesquisa, sendo relevante no sentido de que os recursos multimodais são propiciadores da produção de sentidos em narrativas orais infantis. Desse modo, este trabalho propõe investigar os recursos multimodais que favorecem a produção de sentidos em narrativas orais infantis. Fundamentamos nossa pesquisa na perspectiva do funcionamento multimodal da linguagem, respaldados em McNeill (2000), Kendon (1982, 2000), Cavalcante (1999, 2009), Fonte (2011) e Fonte et al (2014), e nos estudos sobre narrativas orais e literatura infantil, com as contribuições de Marcuschi (2003), Bettelheim (1979), Matos (2009), Franz (1981), Sisto (2012), Abramovich (2000), Gillig (1999). A metodologia foi de caráter qualitativo, natureza observacional do tipo estudo de caso. Para a coleta de dados, participaram sete crianças de uma escola da rede de ensino municipal da cidade do Recife, matriculadas no segundo ano do ensino fundamental. Um conto clássico adaptado da literatura infantil e um conto inédito foram gravados em áudio e, posteriormente, apresentados para as crianças em dois momentos distintos. Após ouvir os contos pela segunda vez, as crianças recontaram cada um deles. Os recontos foram filmados para serem transcritos através do software ELAN (Eudico Linguistic Annotator), que possibilita registrar fala e gestos simultâneos. Selecionamos como categoria de análise o plano verbal e plano gestual, que compõem o envelope multimodal, adotado por Ávila Nóbrega (2010) e Fonte (2011). Sabemos que o primeiro contato da criança com o texto é o falar, o ouvir, o sentir, o enxergar com os olhos do imaginário. Com a análise dos dados, concluímos que, nas narrativas dos contos, houve a predominância da produção verbal associada às gesticulações. Porém, no conto clássico, observamos maior variedade de gesticulações e mais detalhes na narrativa em virtude da sedimentação dos recursos multimodais na história mais conhecida. No conto contemporâneo, constatamos limitações das informações nas narrativas e maior escassez gestual, talvez por não ser conhecido pelas crianças.

The problem with which this investigation is concerned is that of determining the ability of economically disadvantaged black children to comprehend a specific grammatical operation, the non-identity requirement of pronominalization. In addition, the study is also concerned with describing selected characteristics of the language of the subjects in the study through the utilization of a task of imitation. The subjects of the study were forty-eight black children who were between the ages of four and ten years. All subjects were from families in which the natural parents were living together in the same household. The parents and children were native residents of the area and were recipients of federal welfare aid. None of the subjects in the study had histories of physiological, psychological, neurological, or auditory problems, and none were presently enrolled in rehabilitative language programs. A general estimate of intelligence was provided by the administration of the Columbia Mental Maturity Scale.

Thesis (M. Ed. (Language Education)) -- University of Limpopo, 2021 / The Foundation Phase Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement’s objective is to equip children from Grade R to Grade 3 with the necessary and relevant knowledge, skills and values that will enable them to become productive, as well as functional participants in the Intermediate and Senior Phases of formal schooling as well as in global societies. However, literacy surveys at both national and international levels continue to demonstrate results that position South Africa at the least achieving levels. This signals that CAPS does not achieve its desired goals regarding learners’ performance and educational development. Given this background, there is a rise in the need for a research of this nature to explore better strategies of equipping learners with rich vocabulary for ease of language learning. This study investigates the development of oral skills (listening and speaking) in two receptive grades in rural foundation phases. The study is a phenomenological case-study which adopts a mixed methodological lens of enquiry to collect and analyse data. Data collection procedures include classroom observations, semi-structured interviews and document analysis. This investigation found that listening and speaking skills are not sufficiently developed in the investigated schools. An intensive exploration of the processes, activities, approaches and resources used for developing listening and speaking skills in both schools demonstrated that teachers lack knowledge and skills for administering activities, applying appropriate approaches and using the available literacy resources to develop listening and speaking skills. The study discussed the contributory factors to the above findings and, therefore, recommends that the Department of Education should provide Grade R teachers with in-service training and support programs. The programs should be intended to acquaint teachers with skills to use materials and to apply strategies in different ways to help all learners develop listening and speaking skills through understandable oral participation. Key words: Listening, Speaking, Literacy, Development, and Learning and Teaching

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised, (PPVT-R) and receptive subtest of the Preschool Language Scale (PLS), and between the PPVT-R and the Test of Auditory Comprehension of Language-Revised (TACL-R), as well as determine how the tests compare in identifying children in need of further evaluation in the area of receptive language. The reasoning behind the goal of this study was to determine that if the three tests showed a strong, positive correlation and identified the same children as needing further assessment, then perhaps the test which was easier and shorter to administer (the PPVT-R) could be used with more confidence 2 as a quick, reliable screening tool of overall receptive language ability. In other words, if a child does poorly on the PPVT-R, one could assume that the child would most likely score below average on the other two tests also. Based on the results of this study, one cannot make this assumption.

The purpose of this study was to investigate which of 26 prepositions are acquired expressively by educable mentally retarded children. This study was designed to 'determine if there was a significant difference between the number of prepositions expressed by an EMR sample and those expressed by normals of similar mental age, and if the same prepositions were used by the two groups at given mental ages. The correlation between chronological age and the number of prepositions expressed by the EMR population was also investigated.

This study sought to determine if there are any "cultural" or economic level patterns of behavior in responding to tasks involving categorizing pictures and recalling general knowledge. The Daberon School Headiness Device (1972), which contains subtests for general knowledge and categorization, was used to assess four groups of children: 1) lower-SES white, 2) lower-SES black, 3) middle-SES white, and 4) middle-SES black. This study involved thirty black and thirty white children between the ages of five years and five years, eleven months. All subjects were screened to determine race, age, auditory acuity, speech intelligibility, subject cooperation, and socioeconomic status (SES). Testing for intelligence was performed at the beginning of the testing situation.

This study describes the developmental movement of kindergarten children from oral language toward written communication. The study describes and documents evidence of a sample of kindergarten children as they interact with print concepts in a kindergarten environment. The subjects were thirty kindergarten students randomly selected from three specific kindergartens identified as implementing the Key Vocabulary approach of Sylvia Ashton-Warner. The classrooms were public school kindergartens located in a suburban area of North Central Texas. From the findings several conclusions can be drawn. The learning of kindergarten children can be documented and a profile of that learning can be developed that will have possible future use in the learning career of the child. Kindergarten children may perceive the reading of a story to the group differently from the teacher. The perception of the process of writing by kindergarten children may be different from that of adults. There was evidence of children's writing in their movement from oral language toward print.

Through two presented experiments, I investigated the relationship between the development of non-arbitrary relational control on a) degree of incidental acquisition of both the listener and speaker components of naming (Inc-BiN), b) arbitrary derived relations, and 3) joint attention for children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In Experiment I, three preschoolers with ASD or developmental disabilities were selected based on their incidental acquisition of the listener component of naming (Inc-UniN). The study explored the effect of non-arbitrary relational teaching across the frames of coordination, distinction, comparison, opposition, and hierarchy on the degree of Inc-BiN for familiar and novel stimuli under the brief condition (Inc-BiN) and the number of correct responses on taught and novel non-arbitrary relations during the pre- or post-intervention probes using a concurrent multiple probes design. All three participants successfully acquired the discriminative function of contextual cues across the five frames for non-arbitrary relations. However, there was no improvement in the degree of Inc-BiN across all three participants. In Experiment II, three new preschoolers who demonstrated Inc-UniN with familiar and novel stimuli at the onset of the study went through the non-arbitrary listener/speaker MEI procedure across different frames to improve their abilities to derive arbitrary relations for coordination, distinctive, and comparison relations, advance the degree of the Inc-BiN with familiar and novel stimuli, and facilitate joint attention skills through a concurrent multiple probe design. The results showed a functional relationship between the non-arbitrary listener/speaker MEI procedure and the participants’ correct listener and speaker responses during derived arbitrary relational assessments across different frames. However, there was no effect on the degree of Inc-BiN or joint attention responses across all three participants after the intervention.