Before speech: The beginning of interpersonal communication. Ed. by Margaret Bullowa. Cambridge: University Press, 1979. Pp. viii, 400. Cloth 36. 00, paper 9. 95.

Introduction: prelinguistic communication: a field for scientific research M. Bullowa 2. 'The epigenesis of conversational interaction': a personal account of research development M. C. Bateson 3. Evidence of communication in neonatal behavioral assesment T.B. Brazelton 4. Mutual regulation of the neonatal-maternal interactive: context for the origins of communication P.F. Chappell and L.W. Lander 5. Describing the structure of social interaction in infancy G.M. Collis 6. Neonata entrainment and enculturation W.S. Condon 7. Blind infants and their mothers: an examination of the sign system S. Fraiberg 8. One child's protolanguage M.A.K. Halliday 9. Thickening thin data: the maternal tole in devloping communication and language K. Kaye 10. The growth of shared understandings between infant and caregiver J. Newson 11. How wild chimpanzee babies trigger the onset of mother-infant play - and what the mother makes of it F. Plooij 12. Making sense of experience to make sensible sounds D. Ricks 13. Talking and playing with babies: the role of ideologies of child-rearing C.E. Snow, A. de Blauw and G. van Roosmalen 14. Early tactile communication and the patterning of human organization: a New Guinea case study E.R. Sorenson 15. Communication starts with selective attention K. Stensland Junker 16. Communication and cooperation in early infancy: a description of primary intersubjectivity C. Trevarthen 17. Structure of early face-to-face communicative interactions E. Tronick, H. Als and L. Adamson Bibliography (and citation and names index).