From prespeech to language: The influence of caregiver-child interaction

Communication is considered a function based on reciprocity and communicativeness with a human partner, the child's participation and capacity, and the adult's adaptiveness and interpreting enable differentiation of messages and meanings. Major precursors of pre-speech communication acts of infants, as suggested by Bruner, are presented, taking into consideration caregiver's mode of interpreting the infant's communication intent, joint referential devices, and strategies for enlisting in joint activity.