This publication is concerned with the early stages of languageacquisition and is designed for use by early childhood teachers,nursery nurses, special education teachers and others working withchildren experiencing difficulties in learning to talk. Proceduresare described that can be used to assess a child' s current skillsand plan activities to increase communicative competence.The programme described is based on a developmental sequencethat moves the early skills of joint attention, turn-taking andappropriate play to the more complex skills of asking and answeringquestions. Other issues discussed include sound development andintelligibility, the use of augmentative and alternativecommunication as stepping stones to speech, working with childrenand with families.The second edition has an expanded focus on the place ofcommunicative intentions in early language development.
