| Abstract: | SUMMARY: This article draws on many years of research into the development of communication, play and cooperation in the first year of life to argue that, from their very earliest days, babies are highly motivated to learn, and are profoundly influenced in their learning by the interplay or ‘protoconversations’ between themselves and their parents and carers. The acquisition of language and thus thinking and understanding is supported by a relationship that demands cooperation and negotiation between adult and small child, and the author emphasises the central role that emotions and their communication have in cognitive growth. |
