The guide describes communication games--simple, noncompetitive structured activities designed to promote conversational and linguistic skills in children with language delays and language disabilities. The approach is distinguished from traditional approaches by the creation of a genuine need for talking rather than arbitrary demands, emphasis on meaning rather than imitation, and reinforcement of responses related to meaning. Three levels one-word utterances, two-word constructions, and multiword constructions and modulations) are incorporated into the games, which may be played individually or in small groups with various combinations of adults and children. The process of matching games to a child is focused on. Six types of communicative games are described and examples given: hiding games, lotto and bingo, picture-toy matching, identical arrangements, action directive games, and guessing games. A final chapter addresses the change from a traditional to a communicative teaching approach. Appendices describe the linguistic content and the design and construction of the games. (CL)