The development of language in the early months of life

This paper explores the nature and quality of the very early relationship between parents and their babies and the relational precursors of language development. Babies are understood to listen to and recognise parent’s voices during the later months of pregnancy. This paper discusses factors in normal and delayed language development and, uses illustrations from observations of 2 infants aged between 1 and 18 months and their relationships with their parents. The focus of these illustrations is a comparison of facilitative and impeding factors in the development of life of the mind, symbolic functioning and the relationship with subsequent language development