S The purpose of the present investigation was to examine the relation of storytelling skills to achievement in reading comprehension in African‐American children. Socioeconomic status (SES), gender and developmental level of children's stories were examined as predictors of reading achievement. A total of 80 children in the fourth and sixth grades served as subjects. Results indicated that correlations of the narrative variables with reading achievement were significant for story level (0.37) and clauses per T‐unit (0.33). These results are discussed relative to the effect of oral language on academic achievement and the importance of examining this relationship in culturally and linguistically diverse groups. La recherche présentée ici a eu pour but d'examiner le rapport entre les capacités de conter des histoires et le niveau atteint en compréhension à la lecture chez des enfants afroaméricains. Le statut socioéconomique, le sexe et le niveau de développement des histoires des enfants ont été examinés en tant que variables explicatives du niveau atteint en lecture. Quatre‐vingts enfants en quatrième et sixième années de scolarité ont servi de sujets. Les résultats ont indiqué que les corrélations des variables de narration avec le niveau atteint en lecture étaient significatives en ce qui concernait le niveau de l'histoire (0,37) et le nombre de clauses par unité de thème (0,33). La discussion de ces résultats porte sur l'influence du langage oral sur le niveau atteint lors des études et sur l'importance qu'il y a à examiner ce rapport quand on s'interesse à des groupes différents des points de vue culturel et linguistique. Gegenstand dieser Untersuchung war die Beziehung zwischen Erzählfähigkeiten in afroamerikanischen Kindern und ihrem Verständnis beim Lesen. Als Prädiktoren für die Lese‐Verständnisleistung dienten der sozio‐ökonomische Status, das Geschlecht der Kinder sowie das Entwicklungsniveau der von den Kindern erzählten Geschichten. Insgesamt wurden 80 Kinder aus der vierten und der sechsten Schulklasse untersucht. Die Ergebnisse zeigten, daß die Korrelation zwischen narrativen Variablen und Leseleistung für dos Niveau der Geschichte (0,37) und für die Anzahl der Sätze pro T‐Einheit (0,33) signifikant waren. Diese Ergebnisse werden hinsichtlich der Bedeutung oraler Sprachfänigkeit für die schulische Leistung und hinsichtlich der Wichtigkeit, diese Beziehung in kulturell und sprachlich verschiedenen Gruppen zu unteruchen, erörtert.

Children with speci c language impairment (SLI) may have inef cient memory or memory management for auditory and visual representation systems. This study sought to determine if strategy training would create any residual enhancement of these memory management systems. Data revealed that immediately following intervention, elementary students taught to use a rehearsal strategy and those taught to use a rehearsal = visualization strategy made signi cant gains over a traditional language therapy group on a standardized test of following directions. However, only the rehearsal = visualization group retained its gains over the traditional group eight months after the intervention. These ndings support the long-term ef cacy of systematic training via rehearsal = visualization to increase the ability of children with SLI to follow verbal directions.

The present study was designed to examine the pragmatic language functions used by school-age children during a structured dialogue. The structured dialogue consisted of a question-answer paradigm. Seven different questions were asked of each subject. A taxonomy consisting of ten categories was developed for the purpose of classifying the subjects' responses to the questions. The taxonomy was found to be effective in two ways: 1) the number of categories was sufficient to handle the subjects' responses to questions and 2) the interscorer reliability of the independent judges using the taxonomy was high. Results indicate the existence of both similarities and differences in the way school-age children answer questions during a structured dialogue.

The purpose of the present investigation was to measure the effects of a treatment programme designed to improve the pragmatic language skills of children with learning disabilities. Subjects were 20 students from a laboratory primary school dedicated to addressing the needs of children with learning disabilities. The children were divided into two groups according to class. Class one consisted of six males and three females, and ranged in age from 7;6 to 9;8. Class two consisted of five males and six females, and ranged in age from 6;5 to 8;1. The methodology consisted of administering a criterion-referenced test measuring language expression, establishing a treatment programme to address the areas of conversation, receptive and expressive internal responses, and qualitative and quantitative descriptions of objects, and measuring the effects of therapy by giving the criterion-referenced test again, under the same conditions as the first administration. Results indicated that the children improved in all three areas targeted.

The purpose of the present investigation was to measure the effects of a treatment programme on the story-telling ability of a second-grade language/learning-disabled male. Treatment was conducted twice a week for a period of 12 weeks. Results revealed an improvement in both the length and complexity of the subject's oral stories. These results are discussed relative to the role of language treatment on academic success.