Professional paper

Early communication: what is the secret?

Marta Ljubešić ; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, Department of Speech and Language Pathology, Early Communication Unit
Maja Cepanec ; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Education and Rehabilitation Sciences, Department of Speech and Language Pathology, Early Communication Unit

Abstract

This article reviews the development of early communication, with a special emphasis on its role in ontogenesis and the assessment procedure. The importance of early communication lies in its great role in cognitive and socio-emotional development, but also in the fact that the features of early communication provide us with information about the whole developmental profile and are, therefore,
very important for an early detection of autism spectrum disorders or intellectual disabilities. The period of early communication development can be subdivided into a preverbal (0-2 years) and verbal period (2-6 years). While there are a lot of studies on language development and the verbal period of communication development, the preverbal period is largely understudied. In the preverbal period
important transitions can be noticed, especially the one from pre-intentional to intentional communication and from pre-symbolic towards symbolic (e.g. language) communication. The assessment of those features in children is very complex and requires an interdisciplinary approach, a profound knowledge of the developmental changes in many developmental domains, good
observational skills and a synthesis of data from different sources (measuring scales, developmental tests, observation, parental reports, etc.).

Keywords

communication; periods; early child development; social cognition; autism; social communication disorder

Hrčak ID:

123819

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/123819

Publication date:

1.7.2012.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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