Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Some results when using the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamen tals-Revised (CELF-R) with 17 children with severe to profound hearing losses are reported. Of particular interest was the pattern of responses when using conjunctions, especially before and after. A preference was observed for postponing the subordinate clause when using before and after, but not with other conjunctions. Although the children could use before and after, meaningfully, they were restricted in the range of contexts where they would be successful in so doing. It is suggested that a lack of syntactic versatility prevented these children from using some conjunctions fully. This lack of versatility is discussed in the context of the communicative difficulties which hearing-impaired children are likely to experience.

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Amidon, A. and Carey, P. 1972: Why five-year-olds cannot understand before and after. J. Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour 11, 417-23.

Bench, J. and Bamford J. , editors, 1979: Speech-hearing tests and the spoken language of hearing-impaired children. London : Academic Press.

Bench, J. , Doyle, J. and Greenwood, K.M. 1987: A standardisation of the BKB/A sentence test for children in comparison with the NALCID sentences test and the CAL-PBM word test. Aust. J. Audiology 9, 39-48.

Bench, J. , Mentz, L. and Wilson, I. 1979: The spoken language of hearing-impaired children: vocabulary . In Bench, J. and Bamford, J. , editors, Speech-hearing tests and the spoken language of hearing-impaired children. London: Academic Press.

Bever, T.G. 1970: The cognitive basis for linguistic structures. In Hayes, J. R. , editor, Cognition and the Development of Language. New York: John Wiley.

Clark, E.V. 1970: How young children describe events in time. In Flores D'Arcais and Levelt W. J. M. , editors, Advances in psycholinguistics . Amsterdam: North-Holland.

— 1971: On the acquisition of the meaning of before and after . J. Verbal Learning and Verbal Behaviour 10, 266-75.

Clark, H.H. and Clark E.V. 1968: Semantic distinctions and memory for complex sentences. Q. J. Exp. Psych. 20, 129-38.

Coker, P. 1978: Syntactic and semantic factors in the acquisition of before and after. J. Child Lang. 5, 261-77.

10.

Conrad, R. 1979: The Deaf School Child; Language and Cognitive Function . London: Harper and Row.

11.

Goodz, N. 1982: Is before really easier to understand than after ? Child Develop. 53, 822-25.

12.

Johnson, H.L. 1975: The meaning of before and after for preschool children . J. Exp. Child Psych. 19, 88-99.

13.

Laubitz, J. 1987: Conjunction in children's discourse. Papers and Reports on Child Language Development 26, 64-71.

14.

Scott, C. 1988: Producing complex sentences. Topic in Lang. Disord. 8, 44-62.

15.

Semel, E. , Wiig, E.H. and Secord, W. 1987: Clinical evaluation of language fundamentals-revised . London: The Psychological Corporation , Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.

16.

Smith, K.H. and McMahon, L.E. 1970: Understanding order information in sentences: some recent work at Bell Laboratories. In Flores D'Arcais, G. B. and Levelt, W. J. M. , editors, Advances in Psycholinguistics. Amsterdam : North-Holland.

17.

Weiss, A.L. and Johnson, C.J. 1993: Relationships between narrative and syntactic competencies in school-aged, hearing-impaired children. Applied Psycholinguistics 14, 35-59.

Some observations on the use of conjunctions when using the CELF-R with hearing-impaired children

Abstract

Get full access to this article

References