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The two principal sublimations of the young baby are learning to walk and learning to talk. The first is the basis for all physical activities and independence; the latter is of paramount importance for intellectual and social development.
Learning to talk comprises several interdependent processes:
The baby develops an interest in sounds and gradually learns to distinguish them.
He learns to produce sounds in an ever increasing variety and rhythm. Originally he does this for the pure pleasure of producing sounds. Soon he learns in this way to express his feelings; and later to communicate his feelings and needs to others.
He responds to the grown-ups’ attempts to make him take a special interest in certain groups of sounds and to connect these with certain objects or situations. He learns to connect certain sounds with certain meanings in the manner of adults only when he has already acquired some emotional relationship and identification with them.
Libido from such activities as sucking, biting, defecating, breathing, swallowing, etc. is in some measure transferred to the interest in producing and taking in sounds and words.
The child learns to transfer some of his interest from concrete situations or sensations to the words describing them.
The reaction of the newborn baby to sounds is negative or indifferent. During the first weeks of life, he begins to take a peasurable interest in certain sounds, e.g. the human voice.1 The pleasure he derives from sounds seems at first to be merely the gratification of the sensory organ, of listening; gradually he learns to associate certain sounds with pleasurable experiences and looks forward to hearing those which are associated for him with the presence of his mother and the prospect of being fed or nursed. At the next stage in development, the forepleasure accompanying these