Face-to-face communication makes up only a small proportion of an infant's diurnal transactions with his environment, but it is viewed as crucial to his total development. Research was conducted in which adult and infant behaviors were videotaped, and their interactions were analyzed. (Author/HP)

Paralinguistic and kinesic expression begin at birth and are essential to the development of language. Rhythm, for example, a suprasegmental event, appears to be present at birth or prior to birth. The relationship of physiology to communication is evident in the observations of extra-linguistic aspects of communication, such as movement, the use…

A study is reported relevant to the relationship between first words learned by children and gestural symbolization under a variety of contextual conditions. It is part of a larger longitudinal study of 32 children at 10, 13, 20, and 27 months of age. The children were seen in three standardized situations for eliciting gestural and vocal symbols:…