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The present study examines narrative competence and its relationships with syntactic and prosodic skills in preschool children. The narrative skills of 30 typically developing Italian children were assessed during their first year of kindergarten attendance (T1) and again one year later (T2). A picture book was used to elicit children’s narratives. All stories were examined for narrative competence, syntactic complexity and prosody. The results are discussed in the context of the relationships between prosody and the other linguistic skills, considering that the children who were more proficient storytellers and exhibited better syntactic construction were generally less able to produce their utterances within a single melodic contour. Therefore, the linguistic and cognitive abilities required by a storytelling task may negatively influence a child’s ability to produce sentences within a single melodic contour. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The lexical and structural characteristics of the maternal input addressed to 24-month-old children with Down syndrome were compared to the input addressed to two groups of typically developing children; matched for chronological age (CA Group) and lexical skills (Vocabulary Group), respectively. The aim of the study was to verify whether the characteristics of the language addressed to children with Down syndrome are oversimplified, as found in previous studies, or if they are appropriate for the children’s developmental level. Data analyses show that the lexicon directed towards these children is simpler than that addressed to both of the comparison groups in terms of vocabulary composition (fewer function words and more onomatopoeic words/routines) and simpler than that addressed to the CA Group in terms of lexical variability. However, in terms of syntactic complexity, the input is mid-way between the two comparison groups. In addition, the analysis of maternal imitative utterances shows that the children with Down syndrome receive a lower proportion of imitative utterances than could be expected based on their age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study investigates the appearance of certain phonetic, phonological, and prosodic aspects of Italian in the early language of native speakers; a longitudinal analysis of babbling and word production in 11 Italian children ranging in age from 0;10 to 2;0 is reported. It focuses in particular on the syllabic frequency of babbling utterances and the distribution of consonant sounds in relation to their place of articulation in babbling and first words. It analyzes also the role of phonotactic characteristics and accentual patterns of word targets in production correctness and word shape constraints. Results show that the relationships with the frequency characteristics of the Italian lexicon become increasingly evident in language production from age 0;11 on. The data also provide substantiation for the role of phonotactic characteristics and accentual patterns in influencing correct word production. Finally, a continuity between babbling and words emerged from an analysis of individual differences. The discussion focuses on the role of ambient characteristics of language versus universal articulatory constraints in early phonological development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Communication in 32 mother-infant dyads (18 mother-preterm infants and 14 mother-full-term infants) was observed during semi-structured play sessions when the children were 6 months of age. Maternal speech directed to the child was assessed in terms of complexity, verbal productivity and function of the utterances. This study also analysed turn-taking interaction structure and the children's prelinguistic development. The results show differences between the interactive patterns of term and preterm mother-infant dyads. In particular, mother-preterm infant conversations were characterized by high maternal responsiveness and lack of activity on the part of the infant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper compares the proportions of different word classes present in 30 Italian children at two specific stages of vocabulary development (200 and 500 words). The Italian version of the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory and spontaneous speech samples produced during an observation session were both used to examine the extent to which these children produce quantitatively different vocabulary compositions. Both methods revealed a greater presence of nouns than other word classes in the sample studied, although significant differences were found in the noun/other word class proportions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The capacity to relate two or more words into single intonational contours is an important phenomenon in the transition to early multi-word utterances, but there are few systematic investigations of the related acoustic properties. This study analysed the prosodic characteristics of early multi-word utterances produced by a sample of Italian children with the aim of verifying which prosodic models are detectable in early word combinations. The study focuses on the occurrence of the final syllable lengthening phenomenon. The 32 participants were 13-14 months old at the start of the study. Vocabulary development was assessed monthly up to approximately 200 words. Results show that the capacity to link two or more words in a single intonational contour is not fully developed during the production of the first multi-word utterances, and that final syllable lengthening, even if developed independently, is partially influenced by the development of intonational models. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The purpose of this article was to adapt and validate the Attachment Q-Sort (AQS; Vaughn & Waters, 1990) in the Italian context of child rearing at home and in centre care, and to analyse the associations of attachment to the mother and to the professional caregiver with play behaviour of the child. The article reports on three studies. The first study describes the procedure used to create the Italian version of the Attachment Q-Sort. Fifteen Italian experts provided the AQS descriptions of the prototypical ‘most secure child’; moreover, 18 Italian caregivers used the AQS to describe the hypothetical ‘ideal child’ in the context of the child care centre. The profiles of the Italian experts were very similar to those of American experts. Italian experts and Italian caregivers also strongly agreed in their descriptions, respectively, of the ‘most secure’ and the ‘ideal’ child. The second study reports on the reliability of the AQS data. Eighty-six children (43% male; 59% first-borns) and their mothers and caregivers participated in the research. Children’s ages ranged from 14 to 36 months (M=26.6; SD=6.78). All children spent at least 30 hours per week in the child care centres. Test-retest reliability and inter-observer agreement appeared to be satisfactory. Agreement between mother/caregiver- and observer-reported security scores was less convincing. In the third study, the associations between the network of attachment and level of play were examined. Fifty children (58% male; 60% first-borns) participated. Children’s ages ranged from 14 to 36 months (M=25.8; SD=6.56). Play behaviour was observed at the child care centre during free play sessions of 30 minutes and social and cognitive play categories were coded. Secure attachment led to higher cognitive levels of play. Attachment to the caregiver was generally more influential than attachment to the mother. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fourteen Italian infants were observed during play-interaction with their mothers in six laboratory sessions taking place about every two months from 7 to 21 months of age. They were video- recorded and transcribed to obtain data on the frequency of mothers' verbal behaviour and its pragmatic and semantic charac teristics. Infants' productions were also classified as babbling, words or multi-word utterances. Analyses were performed to assess: (a) variations in characteristics of maternal speech with infants' increasing age; (b) stability of individual characteristics of mothers' verbal behaviour; (c) the contribution of children's individual characteristics and mothers' interactive style to language acquisition at 12 and 21 months. Results revealed that both infants' and mothers' individual characteristics make a relevant contribution to the first steps of language acquisition. However, after the first year of age, infants' individual differences are more responsible for the outcomes of the second year. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This article analyzes cry and non-cry vocalizations in four infants, videorecorded between 4 and 8 months of age, by spectrograph in order to extract their temporal features. The vocalizations were classified with respect to their communicative value on the basis of situational context. Temporal parameters considered were: sequence length, pause duration, and vocalization duration. In order to analyze the influence of communicative value and non-segmental characteristics, voicing, melodic pattern, manner of phonation, five ANOVAs were performed. Results showed that duration of vocalizations is influenced by communicative value and non-segmental features, but in most cases not independently one factor from the other.

Presents the summary of the study `The Influence of Using a Word Processor on Children's Story Writing,' by Laura D'Odorico and Vanda L. Zammuner published in the March 1993 issue of `European Journal of Psychology of Education'. Test of the hypotheses that using a word processor for several months might produce a shift in the text production strategies of fourth-grade elementary schoolchildren.