The purpose of this study was to collect quantitative measures describing the use of intentional communication by 15 normal children during the prelinguistic, one-word, and multiword stages. A standard communication sample was collected at each language stage from each subject interacting with a clinician. Measures of rates of intentional communicative acts indicated an average of about 1 act per rain at the prelinguistic stage, 2 acts per min at the one-word stage, and 5 acts per min by the multiword stage. Analysis of communicative functions indicated that virtually all of the subjects displayed some acts for regulating behavior, engaging in social interaction, and referencing joint attention at all language stages. Changes in the proportions of specific communicative functions at each language stage were found. Analysis of discourse structure using these sampling procedures indicated that most subjects engaged in more initiated than respondent acts. Analysis of communicative means showed that the predominant means were gestural and vocal during the prelinguistic and one-word stage and verbal by the multiword stage. Changes in the proportions of isolated and coordinated gestures and vocalizations at each language stage were found. General descriptions of the syllabic shapes of intentional vocal acts at the prelinguistic and one-word stages demonstrated that most of the subjects used a substantial proportion of consonants in both mono- and multisyllabic vocalizations. Clinical applications of these findings to the early identification of children with the potential for language impairments will be discussed.

The purpose of this study was to compare the communicative profiles of preschool children with handicaps to those of normal children functioning in the prelinguistic and one-word stage using standard sampling procedures. The children with handicaps included 4 with Down syndrome, 4 with specific language impairments, and 3 with autism. Measures obtained from the communication samples included rates of intentional communication and proportions of communicative functions, discourse structure, communicative means, and syllabic shape. The results of the children with Down syndrome fell within the normal range on all parameters. The common pattern displayed by the children with specific language impairments was a deviation in syllabic shape. The children with autism displayed adequate rates of communicating but fell outside of the normal range for their language stage on the other communicative parameters. Clinical implications of these findings for the early identification of children with communicative impairments are discussed.