Thesis (Ph.D.)—Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 1981. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 185-192). / This electronic version was scanned from a copy of the thesis on file at the Speech Communication Group. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections. / Whitaker Health Sciences Fund.

This study investigated lexical extension and overextension by three blind children, ages 1;8, 2;1 and 2;5, who had vocabularies of at least 50 words but did not yet produce two-word utterances. Theories of semantic development take it for granted that vision provides the child with access to a great deal of the information necessary for the development of meaning, including much of the knowledge about size, shape, and movement of referents. Through vision, the child is able to form concepts on which word meaning is based, and extend the domain of application of words from original referents by recognizing other instances of that word. Despite this, surprisingly little research has focused on semantic development by blind children. Results of the few relevant studies indicate that blind children rarely extend or overextend their words, and attribute this inability to either (1) a lack of experience with other similar referents, or (2) an inability to form categories that underlie lexical extension and overextension. The blind children were given objects to name during a play session. These objects were (1) new examples of an item the child already named, providing opportunity for the child to extend known words to proper, novel referents, or (2) members of a different nominal category, but differing from an item the child already named in one or two criterial features, thus providing opportunity for the child to overextend. Data on spontaneous extension and overextension was also collected through analysis of utterances produced during experimental sessions and reported in parental diaries. Results indicated that all children extended and overextended their words, both spontaneously and in experiments; visual impairment did not prevent the children from recognizing other exemplars of a referent, or from applying words they knew to objects similar to original referents but, on the basis of criterial features, members of other nominal categories. Performance during two sorting tasks indicated that the children did not have impaired ability to form categories—all three children displayed classificatory behaviour during the sorting activities. / Medicine, Faculty of / Audiology and Speech Sciences, School of / Graduate

In the field of child language acquisition, in particular phonological acquisition, many have queried the role played by perception. The present study was undertaken to examine the perception of some speech sounds by children in the process of phonological development. Perception of the group of sounds known as fricatives was examined in a group of subjects aged 3;0 to 4;11. Pairs of nonsense syllables were presented to eight subjects in an AX paradigm. Results were examined for each fricative pair in terms of mean error rate. Some discussion of individual subjects was also included. Results showed that children find it more difficult to discriminate between some pairs of fricatives than others. In particular, the three voiced/voiceless minimal pairs: [sə-zə, ʃə- ʒə, fə-və] were found to be significantly more difficult to discrjurdnate than other pairs of fricatives. Findings were for the most part in agreement with the results of other similar studies. In addition, methodological problems inherent to the nature of the investigation were encountered and discussed. / Medicine, Faculty of / Audiology and Speech Sciences, School of / Graduate

This clinical study aimed at exploring the following issues: 1) whether English Primary Language and English Second Language students have similar ideas on the Life-Cycle of the Mealworm Beetle; 2) which words and phrases these two groups use to convey key aspects of that Life-Cycle 3) to what extent does the type and frequency of words and phrases used, vary with the student1 ability to communicate orally in English. Two Interview Conditions were used, the Verbal Con dition and the Verbal Manipulative Condition. Results indicated that the ideas of students fell into four patterns regardless of whether subjects were-English Second Language or English Primary Language. A list of words and phrases used by the subject has bee identified, according to the language background of the sample and this list suggests that the type and frequency of nouns, verbs, adjectives and adverbs varied according to the language sub-group (ESL/EPL) and Interview Condition (Verbal/Verbal Manipulative). / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

Skinner (1957) suggested that different verbal operants are acquired independently of each other and establishing a verbal operant as a mand will not necessarily result in the appearance of a tact having the same response form and vice versa. Recent empirical research has found that newly acquired mands and tacts can be transferred to different relations without direct training. The present study investigated 1) how verbal responses taught as pure mands affect untrained tact relations; 2) how verbal responses taught as pure tacts affect untrained mand relations; 3) how the size of mand and tact repertoires relate to speed of acquisition of new mands and tacts; and 4) how size of entering repertoires affect the transfer of mand topographies to tacts and vice versa. Two vocal-verbal children with autism were taught three novel responses as mands and three other responses as tacts. Mand topographies transferred to tact relations and tact topographies transferred to mand relations for both participants. Overall acquisition as well as transfer of mands and tacts was faster for the participant with a higher entering repertoire.

Language is a major part of a child's early developmental growth. Research examining early language shows a wide variation in the rate of language acquisition and its pattern of development. These variations also exist when language development is delayed. The purpose of this study was to investigate the possibility of a relationship between gender and language delay by looking for significant differences in the language skills of 3-year-old boys and girls who were identified as late-talkers (LTs) at the age of 2. Data used for analysis in this study were retrieved from data collected earlier as part of the Portland Language Development Project (PLDP) and a concurring study of late-talking girls. Subjects for this study were drawn from these larger cohorts. The files of all prospective subjects were examined for an expressive vocabulary of less than 50 words at 20-34 months, and for participation in the follow-up evaluation at age 3. Final selection of subjects for this study included 23 boys and 16 girls. Scores from five previously administered assessment measures were compiled for analysis, including the Developmental Sentence Score (DSS), the Expressive OneWord Picture Vocabulary Test (EOWPVT), the Goldman-Fristoe Test of Articulation (GFTA), the Test of Auditory Comprehension of Language-Revised {TACL-R), and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test-Revised. These measures were administered as part of the PLOP and the study of late-talking girls. Mean scores for the boys and the girls were computed for each assessment measure. A two-tailed t-test was used to analyze the differences between these mean scores. The results revealed a significant difference, beyond the .05 level of confidence, between the boys' and girls' scores for the EOWPVT. Although no other significant differences were found, it was noted that the boys' scores were consistently higher than the girls' scores on all measures. It was also noted that, on 4 out of 5 assessment measures, a higher percentage of girls did not respond or could not complete the test due to inability to attend. The fifth measure, the PPVT-R, was completed by all subjects.

The purpose of this study is to determine if colors can differentially be applied as teaching tools for pre-school children. Previous studies have shown that pre-school children are easily distracted in language development by external stimulation. Studies have also shown that brighter color hues can arouse and facilitate performance of subjects on given tasks. This experiment is an attempt to measure performance of word manipulation by usage of colors. Three independent variables have been selected as stimuli to measure direct object acquisition. Measurement of color, noun position, and verb proximity will be assessed in connection with subject performance on given tasks.

Focus has turned from emphasis on phonetic sound errors to phonologic rule systems in the study of articulation disorders. The current theory proposes that the phonological disorders which children experience are controlled by higher levels in the brain than those that control the motor functioning of the brain. The purpose of the present study was to compare the use of phonological processes by a group of school-age children with moderate to severe multiple articulation disorders (MAD) with developmental apraxia of speech (DAS) to the phonological processes used by those without developmental apraxia of speech. For the purposes of this study, those without DAS were classified as functional articulation disorder (FAD).

The questions posed in this study were: Are there significant differences among various tasks for eliciting five locative prepositions, and, if so, do tasks vary in their effectiveness according to the age of the children? Sixty children, ten within each of six age groups, aged eighteen to forty-eight months, participated in the study. All the children had normal language and hearing abilities. An investigator-developed assessment, the Test for Comprehension of Five Locative Prepositions, was administered to each child by the investigator. The Test for Comprehension of Five Locative Prepositions involved picture contexts and object contexts of varying sizes, and required manipulation, pointing and self action response modes.

This paper will attempt to present what factual material is available comparing language development in the deaf with normal language development. It will discuss problems which have become apparent in the search for this data and some solutions to the problems. Preschool language development will be taken up first, followed by a consideration of school age written and oral language, and concluding with a discussion of associations as they affect the verbal behavior of the deaf child.