This book gives parents, teachers, and other professionals who work and play with young children a confident understanding of communication and language development for children from birth to age eight. This resource examines the range of elements that are typical of communication and language activities: thinking, feeling, imagining, talking, listening, drawing, writing, and reading. The author emphasizes the importance of children's relationships and communications with the people who care about them, spend time with them, and share in the excitement of their developing languages and their investigations of literacy. This guidebook covers: (1) Early communication and language; (2) Achievements of young bilinguals; (3) Stories, narratives, and language play and their significance in literacy development; and (4) Emerging literacy in homes, early years settings and classrooms. The book contains the following: (1) Introduction; (2) Glossary; (3) The Development of Communication and Language; (4) Young Bilinguals; (5) Stories, Narrative and Play with Language; (6) Literacy: The Early Years, birth to 6; (7) Literacy: Developing Readers and Writers 6-8; and (8) Talking with Parents and Carers about Communication and Language Development. A bibliography and an index are included.