Relational meaning and the facilitation of slow-learnign children's language.
Through a modeling procedure, 24 slow-learning children acquired the use of two-word subject-verb utterances. The children were assigned to conditions designed to examine the effects of two variables: (a) the number of different semantic relations theoretically underlying the subject-verb utterances on which the children were trained and (b) the extent to which these semantic relations were associated with nonlinguistic events. Stimuli in the form of situational events proved facilitative in the children's subject-verb usage. Apparently, situational evidence may provide the child with useful relational information about his environment. Implications for intervention were discussed.
D002675:Child, Preschool; D004495:Education of Persons with Intellectual Disabilities; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D011578:Psycholinguistics; D012932:Social Facilitation