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AbstractA socio-neurocognitive approach to augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) shows several underlying domains of communicative competence: Attention, perception, cognition, memory, orientation, socio-emotional development, motor skills, and language. To determine developmental markers of these underlying core domains of communicative competence in children with communication support needs, we developed a new screening instrument. The present article consists of three consecutive studies. In study 1, we constructed the first version of the screening instrument based on a sample of both children without disabilities and children with Down syndrome. In study 2, we confirmed the reliability (i.e., internal consistency) of the screening instrument in a new group of young children with typical development and established concurrent validity with the Early Language Scale. In study 3, we established concurrent validity with the Communication Matrix in a clinical sample of children with communication support needs. The screening instrument can be used in clinical practice as part of AAC assessment to provide comprehensive insights into strengths and weaknesses in the underlying core domains of communicative competence of children with communication support needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The objective of this article is to socialize the experience acquired on the topic of communicative skills in working with second grade children. It was based on participatory action research, the use of inductive and deductive methods, synthetic analysis and reflection on practice. which allowed us to reach the following conclusions: Communication is a continuous process that develops throughout childhood and adolescence that is influenced by a series of factors, including exposure to language, social interaction and educational support. Second graders are making steady progress in their communication skills, but there are still areas where they can improve. Teachers can play an important role in developing second-grade children's communicative competence. By providing children with opportunities to read, write, speak, and listen, teachers can help children develop the skills they need to be successful in learning. The development of communicative competence is an important investment in children's future and parents, teachers and other adults can work together to support the development of children's communicative competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of language requires, from scratch, the presence of a listener and the construction of interaction formats between the child and the adult. On the other hand, caregivers have their own perception of this same communication event constructed by both parties (child and adult) and implements verbal and non-verbal resources which communicative impact is variable, especially when language is not typically developed. All these dynamics provides valuable subjective information that must be recorded, analyzed and considered in the speech-language pathology clinic from the concepts of pragmatic linguistics and, especially, of speech acts and their forces. Based on this, it will be possible to outline initial guidelines, strategies and modeling for parents to incorporate in their daily lives, with an impact on the way they interact with their families. In our research line, we distinguish three forces of speech acts: the locutionary force related to the emission of words to produce a certain meaning, the illocutionary force related to the intention of the speaker, and the perlocutionary force related to the effect that the sender's speech acts produce on the receiver. This paper highlights the relevance of the latter, and the importance for speech-language pathologists to have specific instruments to assess it by analyzing how each caregiver perceives the child's communicative dynamics. The ICRA-A Battery is part of the pragmatic research line of ICRA (Investigation of Communicative Competence for the Performance of Speech Acts, for its acronym in Spanish) focused on the evaluation and therapeutics of the Minimal Communication Circuits based on the concept of speech act. It is made up of four instruments: Analysis and Recording of Speech Acts, Pragmatic Observation of Play, Parent Questionnaire and Parents' Guide. The first two were administered directly by the speech therapist and the last two were completed by the caregivers. The objective of this paper is to present Instrument 3 of the ICRA-A Battery, the Parent Questionnaire, designed from the perspective of prelinguistic dimensions and precursors to basic speech acts. The record allows gathering information on the perception each parent has regarding their child's communicative competence by complementing the more objective results obtained from the administration of Instruments 1 and 2 of ICRA-A Battery. This paper also aims to analyze the perceptions of the parents of the pragmatic variables of their children at an early age, describe the instrument as well as its constitutive concepts, the implementation modality in the speech and language pathology clinic, and the validity and reliability psychometric analysis. In five out of the six dimensions comprising such instrument, capability of discriminating perceptions of parents of children with and without a pathology related to early communication indicators were verified. Results showed a moderate correlation between responses from mothers and fathers in each group, strengthening the initial hypothesis that each caregiver answers the questionnaire independently. From the analysis carried out, it was possible to establish the strengths and weaknesses of the variables that make up the instrument and to enhance the form of recording by grouping those strengths and weaknesses into prelinguistic dimensions. It is important for speech-language pathologists to be able to sound out parental perception from which they provide guidelines and modeling to each patient's caregiver, taking into account pragmatic communicative variables to promote a Minimum Communication Circuit in children with nonverbal and verbal language compromises at an early age. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a theoretical analysis of the social and communicative competences in children in preschool age. The aim of the research is to determine the features of the social and communicative competences during preschool age. A theoretical analysis of various scientific views on the subject has been made. Communicative competences are examined through M. Lisina’s concept in communication with adults and peers. As a result of the study, the following three main groups of social-communicative competences of children in preschool age, have been identified: 1) skills related to the social development of the child’s personality; 2) skills related to the communication with adults on a situational inter personal, situational-practical, extra situational-cognitive and extra situational inter personal level and communication with peers on an emotional-practical and praktikal level; 3) skills related to general knowledge and ethics. In practice, these features can be rendered into account in the organisation of the educational work in kindergarten for the development of the children’s social and communicative competences. These can also be useful for parents in raising and educating children. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present study carried out to assess dialogic reading's effects on 4th graders' views on values education, and attitudes towards reading based on a quasi-experimental design with pre-test, post-test, and control group. The study group was comprised of 4th graders in a primary school in Yozgat province, Turkey, in 2021-2022 academic year. Data collection tools were the "Reading Attitude Survey" and the "Student Opinions Survey on Values Education". Mann Whitney U and Wilcoxon Signed Rank tests were used to analyze data. The results revealed that dialogic reading led to statistically significant differences in the views of 4th grade students about values education compared to traditional reading. However, no significant difference was found in children attitude towards reading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From this point of view, we can take the liberty of characterizing the theory of understanding outlined in this book as being about the development of a second-order pragmatics tied to the closely related second-order competencies of text/discourse comprehension. In both oral discourse processing (listening) and reading this ability to ascribe understanding and misunderstanding to oneself stands as one of the central attainments of advanced System 2 language awareness - comprehension monitoring. Readers will notice that all of the above informs the debate on whether Theory of Mind is subserved by a domain-specific cognitive component or forms part of a broader domain-general set of proficiencies showing continuum with the second-order discourse comprehension capabilities that are open-ended. The latter, from System 2, may be better thought of as the ability to use language more deliberately and reflectively in regard to context, as typically no meaningful text or discourse can be completely stripped of it. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Logopedia Silesiana is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Slaskiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Although adult and child differences have been a central issue in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) little is still known about the relationship between age and interaction. Within the interactionist framework, whose main claim is that conversation, especially when it generates negotiation of meaning, facilitates learning, researchers have suggested that children negotiate less than adults, at different rates and producing fewer moves to check comprehension. However, these claims have been made by comparing children and adults from different studies. In order to offer a more reliable comparison, we examine the interactions of 14 adults and 20 children, at similar levels of proficiency, performing a communicative oral task with (level and age) matched peers. Unlike suggested, children produce as much negotiation of meaning as adults and both age groups primarily use their moves to prevent misunderstandings. In light of these results, some previous claims are questioned and refined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of the Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (MAIN) has no doubt contributed to prompting a renewed interest in children's narratives. This carefully controlled test of narrative abilities elicits a rich set of measures spanning multiple linguistic domains and their interaction, including lexis, morphosyntax, discourse-pragmatics, as well as various aspects of narrative structure, communicative competence, and language use (such as code-switching). It is particularly well suited to the study of discourse cohesion, referential adequacy and informativeness, and of course to the study of narrative structure and richness, and the acquisition of a more formal or literary register. In this commentary article, I reflect on the five empirical papers included in the special issue. I focus on methodological challenges for the analysis of narratives and identify outstanding questions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reading skill is one of the basic skills a learner should develop to function as a competent learner. This enables a student to feel successful, as s/he can access information and be oriented on what is going on in this fast-changing world. For foreign students, like Chinese, an ability to read and comprehend a text is crucial for success but how much comprehension they know seems to be a big question that needs to be answered especially if the focus is about reading critically (Waring & Nation, 2004). This paper emphasizes on the importance of students' perceived reading ability and its implication to teaching critical reading because often we read depending on our purpose. As well, there are different types of readers, competent readers who normally know what information they are looking for and those who need more time for understanding the information. To teach critical reading, therefore, students should be competent readers as they are likely to be equipped with understanding implicit messages when they interact with the text. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The current research considers that language, context, and culture are inextricably linked as their starting point, and this viewpoint has two significant consequences for foreign language teaching. Textbooks have historically been essential in influencing English classrooms. The present research has concentrated on the methods and practices linked to context and culture found in Stretch 1A, Stretch 1B, and Speak Now English textbooks currently used at Chonburi Technological College in Thailand. Content analysis was used to answer the research questions and derive meanings from words or images selected in the Stretch 1A, Stretch 1B, and Speak Now English textbooks to determine the context in which they are used and understand their relationship to one another to draw inferences about the underlying culture. The present study has found concrete links between the English textbooks used by the Chonburi Technological College and various elements of culture employed to facilitate a better understanding of the Thai students' English-speaking countries. All three textbooks under analysis use different cultural teaching methods for non-native learners in interactive classroom activities that allow them to practice English as a communicative, interactive process. Furthermore, the study found that the Speak Now Student Book is more focused on improving students' communication skills, stimulating them to speak confidently and effectively. Through Speak Now Student Book - Online Practice, the students can enhance their listening, speaking, and pronunciation abilities outside of class by allowing them to talk, record, and submit to instructor activities. In contrast with Stretch 1A and Stretch 1B, the Speak Now Student Book is the first English learning book to introduce dialogue videos to provide real-life models of English communication while emphasizing the native English culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is broad consensus on the need to foster oral skills in middle school due to their inherent importance and because they serve as a tool for learning and acquiring other competences. In order to facilitate the assessment of communicative competence, we hereby propose a model which establishes five key dimensions for effective oral communication: interaction management; multimodality and prosody; textual coherence and cohesion; argumentative strategies; and lexicon and terminology. Based on this model, we developed indicators to measure the proposed dimensions, thus generating a self-report tool to assess oral communication in middle school. Following an initial study conducted with 168 students (mean age = 12.47 years, SD = 0.41), we selected 22 items with the highest discriminant power, while in a second study carried out with a sample of 960 students (mean age 14.11 years, SD = 0.97), we obtained evidence concerning factorial validity and the relationships between oral skills, emotional intelligence and metacognitive strategies related to metacomprehension. We concluded that the proposed model and its derived measure constitute an instrument with good psychometric properties for a reliable and valid assessment of students’ oral competence in middle school. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the communication skills of children with autism spectrum disorders (H. M. Geurts & M. Embrechts), Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (Hilde M Geurts & Mariëtte Embrechts), and learning disability (H. M. Geurts & M. Embrechts) using the Children Communication Checklist to identify any commonalities in communication profile among these conditions. Participants were 60 children with age ranges of 6.0–9.11 years (Mean = 8.2, SD = 1.21) that assigned equally into three groups: ASD, ADHD, and LD. All children were diagnosed by psychiatric according to DSM-V criteria. The differences among groups were significant on the Syntax, Coherence, Context, Rapport, Social and Interests. There were no significant differences between ADHD and LD groups on general communication measures and pragmatic composite. These findings revealed a very different picture and suggested more differences than similarities among children with ADHD, ASD, and LD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This work presents a new frame-by-frame video analysis method called Child-Caregiver Communication Assessment through Rebesco's Evaluation (CC-CARE), developed in the context of pediatric hearing loss as a rehabilitation tool for assessing children's early communication skills. CC-CARE stems from the commonly used Tait video analysis and extends it by including a new set of parameters aimed at disentangling between hearing-dependent and hearing-independent aspects of communication. Method : In this paper, we collected video samples of child-caregiver interactions in a group of 65 normal-hearing children and a group of 165 hearing-impaired children. For each group, we present the CC-CARE method and describe the parameters, their score distributions, correlations and we estimate the adherence of the CC-CARE scores with children's developmental trajectory. Moreover, we compare the results of CC-CARE scores between the two groups having had different development of the auditory system. Finally, a fully-data driven approach was employed to assess the consistency of the communicative efficacy index (CEI), a score aiming to capture a global result of the CC-CARE procedure. Results : Correlations among parameter scores were found in each within-group analysis, revealing CC-CARE's internal consistency in measuring associated but nonoverlapping communication dimensions. For both groups, CC-CARE scores were associated with participants' age. Differences between scores emerged for a between-group analysis, indicating CC-CARE sensitivity to extract communication differences as a function of the hearing status. For both groups, the data analysis revealed that the CEI captures large variance portions across all parameter scores of the CC-CARE method. Conclusions : Results provide the first evidence that the CC-CARE video analysis method could be a reliable tool capable of highlighting the cascading effects of hearing impairment on children's preverbal communicative efficacy. The CC-CARE method aims to support early rehabilitation of hearing loss by describing a child's communicative efficacy. • Assessing early communicative skills leads to better linguistic outcomes for HI children. • We present a new video analysis method named Child-Caregiver Communication Assessment through Rebesco's Evaluation (CC-CARE). • CC-CARE is a tool for the early assessment of children's preverbal communication skills. • CC-CARE scores are associated with the development of hearing-impaired and normal-hearing children. • CC-CARE is a reliable tool for evaluating communication skills that emerge preverbally [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Logopedia Silesiana is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Slaskiego and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose: The purpose of the current study is to develop a valid and reliable screening tool to identify children with risk of developing language difficulties for Estonian-speaking 2- to 3-year-old children. Method: Nine hundred ninety parents of children ages 1;8– 3;1 (years;months) filled in the Estonian MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory II (ECDI-II SF)— containing a 100-word vocabulary checklist, questions about decontextualized language use, and sentence production. A subset of parents filled in the long form of the MacArthurBates Communicative Development Inventory: Words and Sentences (n = 131). We examined the results of 31 children with language problems on the ECDI-II SF to assess the accuracy of the instrument. Results: The concordance of scores on the ECDI-II long form and ECDI-II SF is high. Toddlers’ results on the ECDI-II SF are related to their gender, with girls outscoring boys on the expressive vocabulary and sentence complexity subscales. We also found that children of highly educated mothers outperform others in the acquisition of grammatical skills. The sensitivity and specificity of the ECDI-II SF vocabulary section supported the implementation of this screening tool in order to identify toddlers with difficulties in their language development. Conclusions: ECDI-II SF vocabulary scores are the most informative for determining whether a 2- or 3-year-old is following typical developmental patterns or should be referred to a speech and language specialist for a direct assessment. We provide a discussion on early language screening process and its implications for public health policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Typical development of socio-communicative skills relies on keen observation of others. It thus follows that decreased social attention negatively impacts the subsequent development of socio-communicative abilities in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In addition, studies indicate that social attention is modulated by context and that greater social difficulties are observed in more socially demanding situations. Our study aims to investigate the effect of social complexity on visual exploration of others' actions in preschoolers. Methods: To investigate the impact of social complexity, we used an eye-tracking paradigm with 26 typically developing preschoolers (TD, age = 3.60 ± 1.55) and 37 preschoolers with ASD (age = 3.55 ± 1.21). Participants were shown videos of two children engaging in socially simple play (parallel) versus socially complex play (interactive). We subsequently quantified the time spent and fixation duration on faces, objects, bodies, as well as the background and the number of spontaneous gaze shifts between socially relevant areas of interest. Results: In the ASD group, we observed decreased time spent on faces. Social complexity (interactive play) elicited changes in visual exploration patterns in both groups. From the parallel to the interactive condition, we observed a shift towards socially relevant parts of the scene, a decrease in fixation duration, as well as an increase in spontaneous gaze shifts between faces and objects though there were fewer in the ASD group. Limitations: Our results need to be interpreted cautiously due to relatively small sample sizes and may be relevant to male preschoolers, given our male-only sample and reported phenotypic differences between males and females. Conclusion: Our results suggest that similar to TD children, though to a lesser extent, visual exploration patterns in ASD are modulated by context. Children with ASD that were less sensitive to context modulation showed decreased socio-communicative skills or higher levels of symptoms. Our findings support using naturalistic designs to capture socio-communicative deficits in ASD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper covers the issues of theoretical frameworks that are being developing around the process of modelling social communication skills in children with special educational needs during language learning process using interactive teaching techniques. This draws from a wide range of philosophical and psychological works on social and pedagogical rehabilitation of children with special educational needs as one of priority zones in the world policy and educational system aimed at growing attention to widespread acceptance of people with different needs in all spheres of society. Methodology used in the study is theoretical, empirical, methods of collecting data, description and dealing out the outcomes of the research. The study reflects empirical analysis based on observation, interviewing, testing and pedagogical experiment, which took place in the secondary school № 2 of the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia. Innovative ways of engaging social communication in teaching, learning and research led to designing a model for forming social communication skills in children with special educational needs via foreign language learning. The major findings of the research are the created model that makes possible to develop social and communicative skills; implementation of conditions of the development of these skills during pedagogical process; criteria of capacity for development of social and communicative skills of children with special educational needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The most rudimentary teaching materials in foreign language education are textbooks. The textbooks aim to create awareness about the target culture to a certain extent while teaching the target language's vocabulary and linguistic structures. Along with activities that convey information about the target culture, touching upon their culture, making them feel that this culture is valuable, and thus creating awareness about the value as to all cultures in the eyes of the learner enables the language learner to develop a positive attitude towards the target culture. In this sense, it is essential to touch upon learners' own cultures in the teaching process to develop intercultural communicative competence and, thus, develop positive attitudes towards the target culture. In this study, the question "To what extent is intercultural communicative competence included in the textbooks used in teaching Turkish as a foreign language?" will be dealt with. The study's research model was determined qualitatively, and the document analysis method was used to determine the data. The sample of the study consists of the Turkish Teaching Course Book - Yedi İklim Türkçe Öğretim Seti (YİTÖS) B2 Level prepared by Yunus Emre Institute, which is widely used in the field, and the Istanbul Turkish Teaching Course Books for Foreigners (İTÖS) B2 Level prepared by Istanbul University academic staff. As a result of the analysis of the data, it was determined that the ratio of the number of activities supporting intercultural communicative competence to the total number of activities was 7% in the İTÖS B2 textbook and 8% in the YİTÖS B2 textbook. Besides, it has been determined that activities containing elements that might support intercultural communicative competence gain more weight in both coursebooks' productive skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Parent–child discussions about emotion are a key socialization influence on children's socio‐emotional development. Extant research on parent–child discussions about emotion largely focuses on three main types of discourse content: parental elaboration, parental use of emotion labels and explanations, and parental emotion coaching. A new direction involves distinguishing between parents' direct and indirect communication of discourse content. This distinction may be vital when considering the role of children's communicative competence in their developing socio‐emotional competence. We integrate literature on (in)direct communication, a concept prominent in linguistics, and emotion socialization. We argue that parental indirect communication can teach children communicative competence in the context of emotion talk. We discuss literature from the developmental and linguistic fields on parents' teaching of communicative skills, as well as potential cognitive, relational, and emotional functions of indirectness, with communication and its socialization embedded within cultural context. Finally, we suggest new research directions examining the role of parental indirect communication in children's socio‐emotional development. By integrating developmental and linguistic literatures, we provide a novel approach to the study of parental emotion socialization through parent–child discourse. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the article is to analyze the results of surveys on women's knowledge about FAS and its consequences for the development of a child's speech and communication. 130 women between 18 and 50 years old took part in the survey. A significant proportion of the surveyed women are aware of the problems and consequences of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome caused by the mother's alcohol consumption during pregnancy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Current study reserach anxiety and aggression behaviors among children with emotional and conduct disorders by a case study. The case presents a child who lives outside family and together with other children (N=40) comprised an intervention using four interaction strategies: normal voice and positive language; increased tone and positive language; normal tone and negative language, and increased tone and negative language. The results outline strong dependence between anxiety and aggressive behavior, and demonstrate the inefficiency of the use of negative language with increased tone for children with emotional and conduct disorders. The case study reveals additional nuances in terms of school achievement, which is dependent on the social-communicative development and the emotional and behavioral condition of the child. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The style people communicate has a significant impact on how they get the things they want, express needs, avoid conflicts, and make healthy intersubjective relationships. The success of communication is always the shared responsibilities of both communicators – the sender and the recipient. The article offers the theoretical assumptions and practical results of the research on the communicative correlation between the phenomenon of intersubjectivity, and the existence of the communication styles – assertive, aggressive, and submissive. The authors introduce a semiological approach to the paradigm of intersubjective processes, apply the conversation analysis to the material of English fictional discourse, and characterize the nonverbal profiles of the communication styles under investigation. The article aims at highlighting the specificity of intersubjectivity realization in different communicative styles according to the degree criterion and intensity features. The main findings of the research reveal the intersubjectivity as a communicative style forming principle, which differently actualizes the concept of 'self and other' and manages the creation of the communicative climates (supportive or unsupportive) via verbal and nonverbal behaviors of the sender and the recipient who can or cannot demonstrate their intersubjective competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present paper aims at finding ways to solve the problem of how to teach culture, showing the connections between culture and language, while at the same time striving to develop intercultural competence. In the author's opinion, the ethnography of speaking is the answer. Starting with an overview of what ethnography offers to intercultural communicative competence, this paper supports the idea of implementing an approach close to the ethnography of speaking and shows how linguistic ethnography might be implemented into the study of culture in order to show the relationships between language use, cultural behavior and values. This approach rests upon the belief that the implicit knowledge applied in use of a language needs deeper analysis in order to enhance students' symbolic competence, which in turn enhances their intercultural competence. Examples used in the analysis to justify this claim derive from material used during a course in General English, or courses of British and American Studies. The concept of language-games as proposed by Wittgenstein, who pays attention to the context of language use at the micro level, is applied. The suggestion is to position this analysis in the field of the ethnography of speaking, or linguistic ethnography, and extend the role of a student to one of a linguistic ethnographer. Ethnographic techniques implemented in the analysis of language use and its context might contribute to the development of symbolic competence as complementary to intercultural communicative competence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The teaching-learning of the English language in basic education underwent significant changes in its focus in mid-2017, from the discussions proposed by the Brazilian Common Core Curriculum (BNCC). Before, guided by the National Curriculum Parameters (PCNs), English was treated as a foreign language (EFL). Now, with the new national curriculum guidelines, it appears as a lingua franca (ELF). The purpose of this experience report is to present the materialization of the ELF concept in virtual classes at a municipal elementary school in the extreme south of Santa Catarina. Through the description and analysis of two teaching-learning practices proposed during remote teaching, we discuss how it is possible to carry out the ELF proposal in a perspective that seeks to decentralize the native English speaker, exposing children to different types of English, focus on their communicative skills and encourage them, above all, to experience themselves as legitimate English speakers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This presentation offers a methodological solution for the development of communicative competence of students in 8-12. class in a vocational high school, related to the implementation of an interdisciplinary project involving interaction with institutions, companies, organizations and people outside the educational institution. Its potential for supporting the teaching of Bulgarian language (and other academic disciplines) is analyzed; for the development of the student's personality in psychological, behavioral and value prana; for its socialization; to improve communicative, social and linguistic competence. The conclusions are based on project-oriented activities conducted in natural conditions of authentic communication, and observations made in the process of its implementation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The obsessing of communicative-speaking competence assures the individual full participation in communication. As a major aspect in the mental and personal development of children, it has the status of a species concept with respect to the generic concept ’communicative competence’. The article is dedicated to research focused on one of the most current problems of special pedagogy – the formation of communicative-speaking competence in preschool age children raised in a social home setting, using alternative teaching methods. The comparative approach in the analysis of the empirical data from the two research corps allows them to be compared against pre-formulated criteria and indicators. The results show that the Montessori method provides more effective development of communicative-speaking skills and habits in the children raised in a social home setting compared to the traditional methods of education and communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This bibliographical research presents the main language scholars of different nationalities and their most relevant contributions to the domain of Modern Linguistics in chronological order from the first half of the 20th century until Pragmatic Linguistics of the 21st century. The readings related to diachronic studies of the Spanish language (code, utterances, text, discourse and usage) allow the reader to distinguish the synchrony of the different linguistic theories with their ideas and interpretations, to get to know the primary sources of those explanations via their precursors, and the analytic, descriptive, and functional communicative perspectives, to which they kept closely. This sequential and explicit organization of the theoretical pioneers facilitates the identification of their respective contributions and influence on other authors who adopted the highlighted linguistic paradigms whether independently or integrated. The analysis of each contribution permits the valorization of the language and its linguistic, grammatical, textual, discursive and pragmatic components, as well as its projection in the teaching of language and literature and the current methodology of acquisition of efficient communicative competence in a heterogeneous social, linguistic and cultural context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: This study was designed to test the incremental validity of more expensive vocal development variables relative to less expensive variables for predicting later expressive language in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). We devote particular attention to the added value of coding the quality of vocalizations over the quantity of vocalizations because coding quality adds expense to the coding process. We are also interested in the added value of more costly human-coded vocal variables relative to those generated through automated analyses. Method: Eighty-seven children with ASD aged 13-30 months at study initiation participated. For quantity of vocalizations, we derived one variable from human coding of brief communication samples and one from an automated process for daylong naturalistic audio samples. For quality of vocalizations, we derived four human-coded variables and one automated variable. A composite expressive language measure was derived at study entry, and 6 and 12 months later. The 12 months-centered intercept of a simple linear growth trajectory was used to quantify later expressive language. Results: When statistically controlling for human-coded or automated quantity of vocalization variables, human-coded quality of vocalization variables exhibited incremental validity for predicting later expressive language skills. Human-coded vocal variables also predicted later expressive language skills when controlling for the analogous automated vocal variables. Conclusion: In sum, these findings support devoting resources to human coding of the quality of vocalizations from communication samples to predict later expressive language skills in young children with ASD despite the greater costs of deriving these variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]