1. Attachment, Interaction and Communitive Behaviour.- The Neonatal Period.- Mother to Child.- Child to Mother.- Early Opportunities for Interaction.- The Infant's Recognition of the Face.- The Smile.- Patterns of Interaction.- Mutual Gaze.- Modulation of Interaction.- Facial Expressions and Their Part in Interaction.- Interaction and Emotional Development.- The Elaboration of a Communication System.- Awareness of Strangers.- Separation and the Objects of Attachement.- Communitive Behaviour.- Interrelation in Activity.- 2. The Emergence of the Objective World. Sensory Processing and Motor Activity.- Sensory and Perceptual Development.- Vision.- Visual Perception.- Visual Behaviour.- Hearing.- Frequency of Sound Stimulus.- Duration of Sound.- Hearing Behaviour.- The Perception of Speech and Speechlike Sounds.- Motor Development.- Control of the Position and Movement of the Head.- Touch, Reach and Grasp.- The Use of the Hands.- 3. The Emergence of the Objective World. The World Made Sensible.- The Object.- Space.- Cause and Effect.- The Nature of the Child's Environment.- Imitation.- Play.- 4. Vocal Behaviour and the Origins of Speech.- The Cry.- Early Vocal Behaviour.- Terminology.- The Recorded Material.- Chronological Sections of Vocal Behaviour.- 5. The Early Development of Language.- The One Word Utterance.- The Meanings of Words.- The Holophrase.- Speech Acts.- The Nature and Purposes of Language.- Interaction with Mother.- The Child's Understanding of the Spoken Word.- Two and Three Word Utterances.- 6. Deficit and Delay in the Development of Spoken Language.- Prevalence of Disorder.- The Nature of Society's Response.- The Emotional Effect of Impaired Communication.- The Detection of Delay.- The "Cause" of Delay and Disorder.- The Antecedents of Disorder.- The Nature of Developmental Delay.- The Pattern and Extent of the Disability.- The Child's Speech and Language.- Assessment.- The Approach to the Child.- The Child's Unterstanding of Speech.- Method of Scaling Disability.- 7. The Antecedents of Disorder. Reception and Comprehension.- Hearing.- The Nature of the Handicap.- Hearing Disorder in the Absence of Loss.- Impaired Auditory Processing and Speech Perception.- Sequential, Auditory Memory.- Auditory and Sequential Memory in the Deaf.- Cognitive Function.- The Relation Between "Intelligence" and Language Attainment.- Mental Handicap and Intelligence.- Language Characteristics in the Mentally Handicapped.- Play and Cognitive Deficit.- The Importance of Pretend Play.- Elements and Classes: Categorization.- Directed Attention.- Cognitive Dysfunction and Verbal Comprehension.- Case Report.- 8. The Antecedents of Disorder. Voice, Speech and Language.- Voice.- Case Reports.- Speech.- The Tongue.- Neuro-Motor Dysfunction.- Spoken Language.- Case Report.- Phonological Disorder.- Language Production.- Case Report.- Familial and Hereditable Factors.- 9. The Antecedents of Disorder. Communication.- Case Report.- Parents.- The Child.- Patterns of Disordered Interaction.- Case Report.- Mutism of Emotional Origin.- Case Report.- Hearing Loss.- Mental Handicap.- The Nature of Language Production.- References.