Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

The following study was undertaken to test the effectiveness of a program of language rehabilitation that combined current knowledge about language development with established techniques of programmed conditioning. The subject was a five-year-old girl with a very reduced language system. or a five-month period, she was trained to produce sentences with structures that characterized the next level of development, based on what is known about stages of language acquisition. The sentences were presented through programmed conditioning. Language samples taken before and after training were compared; it was found that the second sample showed a marked gain in mean length of utterance and a large increase in the use and complexity of basic grammatical relations.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bellugi, U. : Learning the language. Psychology Today, 1970, 4, 32–36.

Bloom, L. : Language Development: Form and Function in Emerging Grammars. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1970.

Bloom, L. : Why not pivot grammar?. J. Speech and Hearing Disorders, 1971, 36, 40–50.

Chomsky, N. : A review of B. F. Skinner's “Verbal Behavior.” Language, 1959, 25, 26–58.

Eisenson, J. : Aphasia in children. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.

Fygetakis, L. , and Gray, B. : Programmed conditioning of linguistic competence. Behavior Research and Therapy, 1970, 8, 153–163.

Gray, B. , and Fygetakis, L. : Medicated language acquisition for dysphasic children. Behavior Research and Therapy, 1968, 6, 263–280. (a)

Gray, B. , and Fygetakis, L. : The Development of language as a function of programmed conditioning. Behavior Research and Therapy, 1968, 6, 455–460.

Ingram, D. : Rosenbaum's IBM grammar No. 2: an adaptation for child language. In D. Morehead (Ed.), Papers and Reports on Child Language Development, No. 2. Stanford: Stanford Univ, Committee on Linguistics, 1970, 34–54.

10.

Ingram, D. , and Eisenson, J. : Establishing and developing language in congenitally aphasic children. In J. Eisenson , (Ed.) Aphasia in Children. New York: Harper & Row, 1972.

11.

Jacobs, R. , and Rosenbaum, P. : English Transformational Grammar. Waltham, Mass.: Ginn Blasisdell, 1968.

12.

McNeill, D. : Developmental psycholinguistics. In F. Smith and G. Miller (Eds.), The Genesis of Language. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1966, 15–84.

13.

Menyuk, P. : Comparison of grammar of children with functionally deviant and normal speech.. J. Speech and Hearing Research, 1964, 7, 109–121.

14.

Morehead, D. , and Ingram, D. : The development of base syntax in normal and linguistically deviant children. J. Speech and Hearing Research (in press).

15.

Sloane, N. , Johnson, M. , and Harris, F. : Remedial procedures for teaching verbal behavior to speech deficient or defective young children. In N. Sloane and B. MacAulay (Eds.), Operant Procedures in Remedial Speech and Language Training. New York: Houghton Mifflin, 1968.

Language Rehabilitation and Programmed Conditioning

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References