Study Group on Language Development

Our interest in language development was stimulated by work with patients suffering from various disturbances in language and communication; by observations of the great range of uses to which our nursery school children put language, from sophisticated intellectual discussion to almost worthless noises used to seek attention; and by our interest in the strategies young children employ to acquire a second or third language. Our attention was soon drawn to the vital importance of prelinguistic communication, and the continuing importance of non-verbal communication. We surveyed current literature and used observations on babies and young children to construct the early stages of a developmental line which emphasizes the infant's active contribution to the growth of mother-child communication. A paper on this work, ‘Towards a developmental line for the acquisition of language’ by Rose Edgcumbe is to appear in the Psychoanalytic Study of the Child . In it we have described five early stages of language development in the context of the early mother-child relationship, stressing the importance of pre-linguistic communication for the later establishment of language. In the first stage the infant's inborn means of attracting his mother's attention elicit her responses. These reinforce the baby's noises and gestures which, in the second stage, develop into a range of noises and gestures linked with specific inner experiences and the beginnings of an internal representational world is built up. In the third stage the child becomes aware of the value of vocalizing in influencing the behaviour of people in the external world, and begins to use vocalization, gesture and expression with intent to indicate wishes and obtain their gratification, as well as to communicate inner experiences and interests in the external world. At first his understanding of language far outstrips his use of it, so that in the fourth stage the mother's words can serve as explanation and reassurance