Receptive vocabulary of Hispanic children in Miami was tested in both English and Spanish with complementary standardized tests, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-R) and the Test de Vocabulario en Imágenes Peabody (TVIP-H). 105 bilingual first graders, of middle to high socioeconomic status relative to national norms, were divided according to the language(s) spoken in their homes. Both groups, whether they spoke only Spanish in the home (OSH) or both English and Spanish in the home (ESH), performed near the mean of 100 in Spanish receptive vocabulary (TVIP-H means 97.0 and 96.5); in contrast, ESH group children scored more than 1 SD higher in English than OSH group children (PPVT-R means 88.0 and 69.7, respectively). It appears, therefore, that learning 2 languages at once does not harm receptive language development in the language of origin, while it does lay the groundwork for superior performance in the majority language. Furthermore, an analysis of translation equivalents, items shared by both tests, shows that a statistically significant portion of bilingual children's lexical knowledge does not overlap in their 2 languages and is therefore not reflected in single-language scores.

Receptive vocabulary of Hispanic children in Miami was tested in both English and Spanish with complementary standardized tests, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT-R) and the Test de Vocabulario en Imágenes Peabody (TVIP-H). 105 bilingual first graders, of middle to high socioeconomic status relative to national norms, were divided according to the language(s) spoken in their homes. Both groups, whether they spoke only Spanish in the home (OSH) or both English and Spanish in the home (ESH), performed near the mean of 100 in Spanish receptive vocabulary (TVIP-H means 97.0 and 96.5); in contrast, ESH group children scored more than 1 SD higher in English than OSH group children (PPVT-R means 88.0 and 69.7, respectively). It appears, therefore, that learning 2 languages at once does not harm receptive language development in the language of origin, while it does lay the groundwork for superior performance in the majority language. Furthermore, an analysis of translation equivalents, items shared by both tests, shows that a statistically significant portion of bilingual children's lexical knowledge does not overlap in their 2 languages and is therefore not reflected in single-language scores.

The present study examined the receptive vocabulary knowledge of mid‐socioeconomic‐status Hispanic simultaneous bilinguals exposed to English and Spanish (either mostly Spanish or equally English and Spanish) at home since birth. One hundred and two (34 from each grade level) first, third, and sixth graders were tested in both English and Spanish with complementary standardized tests, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT‐R) and the Test de Vocabulario en Imáenes Peabody (TVIP‐H). All functioned comparably well on the Spanish receptive vocabulary test, the performance of first and sixth graders being near the mean for the norming sample. In contrast, English receptive vocabulary performance increased with grade level (p<.05), first graders functioning approximately one standard deviation below the mean and sixth graders near the mean. It appears, therefore, that early simultaneous exposure to two languages does not harm receptive vocabulary development in the language of origin, while it lays the groundwork for gradual improvement in the majority language with formal schooling. Furthermore, within a simultaneous learning circumstance, equal exposure to English and Spanish at home was found to be sufficient for the maintenance of Spanish vocabulary skills and superior to exposure to mostly Spanish at home with respect to English vocabulary development. In addition, consistent with Cummins'(1979, 1984) interdependence hypothesis, performance in one language was found to be the best predictor of performance in the other.

Hispanic preschoolers in Miami, who are economically and culturally similar to the generalpopulation, were tested on receptive vocabulary in English and Spanish. English scores, even for children from homes where some English is spoken, were more than one and a haif standard deviations below the mean. The Spanish mean, by contrast was 95, a small, though significant difference from the Spanish norm. Factors other than vocabulary knowledge that might account for the lower scores are exploredL These include a different order of item difficulty, the potentially inappropriate norming sample, and the underestimation of bilingual knowledge inherent in single-language measures.

Several investigators have suggested that young infants' smiles and vocalizations following their mothers' imitative behaviors might reflect infant recognition that the mother's behavior is imitative or at least contingent. This study investigated whether infants smile and vocalize more frequently subsequent to maternal imitative than non‐imitative behavior during both spontaneous and imitative face‐to‐face interactions. Fourteen 3 1/2‐month‐old infants and their mothers were videotaped in these two face‐to‐face interaction situations. The infants vocalized more frequently during the imitative situation and infant vocalizations plus simultaneous smiling, and vocalizations occurred more often following maternal imitative than non‐imitative behavior. Although these data suggest that infant vocalizations and simultaneous smiles and vocalizations may reflect the infants' recognition of maternal imitative behavior, they do not establish definitively that it is the imitation per se vs. the contingency aspect that is recognized by the infant.