Research in cognition and language has provided useful constructs which suggest that specific deficits underlie language deficiencies in children. In addition, this research has provided procedures that determine what a child knows about language at a particular level of development and has established a sequence of linguistic development that maps the specific content and structure of training programs. Two new areas of research offer additional approaches to assessment and remediation. One approacch focuses on the actual principles and strategies that normal children use to learn language, making it possible to determine which methods are most efficient. The second research approach looks at the contextual conditions adults and children provide the first language learner. Preliminary work suggests that the natural conditions found universally in first language learning may be the best indicators of how to proceed with language-deficient children.
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