Language, thought, and personality in infancy and childhood

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The intention of this book is to give a systematic account of the growth of language in relation to general development in infancy and childhood. During the last thirty years there have been innumerable studies of different aspects of language ans its place in human behavior. The author has endeavored to answer the need for an ordered and coherent picture of growth by presenting a survey of this work, as well as of detailed observations of children.

One largely new source of knowledge, drawn from evidence scarcely available thirty years ago, is the study of children whose development has been retarded. Children with impaired hearing, or those brought up in an environment unfavorable to their linguistic growth, are being given increasing attention, with the aim of devising more radical methods of treatment. The benefits are mutual, both widening our knowledge f the linguistic development of normal children and heightening our understanding of the care required by the handicapped.


Drawing freely upon the work of others during the last thirty years, the author has presented a most comprehensive study of the language and the intellectual and emotional development of children, seen as a process o organic growth within a social environment.