1. 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).