Includes papers from the International Conference on Social Psychology and Language, held in 1979 at the University of Bristol

Negativity in early infant-adult exchanges and its developmental significance / B. Sylvester-Bradley -- Non-linguistic information which could assist the young child's interpretation of adults' speech / D.J. Messer -- Collaboration and confrontation with young children in language comprehension testing / N.H. Freeman, C.G. Sinha, and S.G. Condliffe -- From interaction strategies to social representation of adults in a day nursery / F. Emiliani, B. Zani, and F. Carugati -- Language performance of disadvantaged children at 30 months / A. McGlaughlin ... [et al.] -- Mothers as teachers and their children as learners / E. Hartmann and H. Haavind -- Mothers' answers to children's questions / W.P. Robinson -- Instruction versus conversation as opportunities for learning / M. Heber -- Conflict and cooperation as opportunities for learning / A.-N. Perret-Clermont and M.-L. Schubauer-Leoni -- Converstional tactics and the advancement of the child's understanding about referential communication / E.J. Robinson -- Some problems for theory, methodology, and methods for the 1980s / W.P. Robinson.