Developing Communication Skills in the Young Child.

is a very important prerequisite to the development of the child's language abilities. And it is important that the interaction be rewarding and fun, in part because this is how a child is encouraged to refine his listening skills. It is also important because it is through the continuous exchange between a child and the people in his world that the child gains the information he needs, hears how words are said and how they are put together, and gets a chance to practice his own emerging verbal skills. Some of the current research refers to a child's "cognitive and communication development." These terms are helpful in understanding the components involved in comprehensive interaction. The child's cognitive and communicative development begins with the simple non-verbal and vocal interaction between the infant and his parents and progresses in a systematic and sequential way until, by the time the average child is in kindergarten, he is able to understand long and involved messages and to express himself in an organized way using complex sentence structures. For most children this occurs without structured "language teaching" times; thus, it would appear that language is normally learned through a child's communicative interaction with other people. As we come to realize the importance of a strong language base for the entire learning process, we are faced with some very specific responsibilities which rest with the adults in a child's life. There are many good language programs published for preschool children, some intended for home use and some for school. They are mute testimony to