"This book is about the most exciting and important aspect of human development - language in the early years (0 - 8). It is a book for carers, parents, teachers and other professionals who work and play with young children and share in the emergence of their language. It will support early years carers and practitioners by giving them a confident understanding of children's language development in the years from birth to age eight." "The book works with the rich mixture of thinking, feeling, imagining, talking, listening, drawing, writing and reading that is typical of all our language activities. The author reasserts the importance of children's relationships and communications with people, who care about them, spend time with them and share in the excitement of their developing languages and their investigations of literacy. This holistic approach covers early communication and language; the achievements of young bilinguals; the significance of stories, narrative and language play; and the emergence of literacy in homes, early years settings and classrooms."--Jacket.