ABSTRACT
This chapter talks about the young child's facility for story-telling, story-making, adopting roles, creating imaginary worlds and peopling them with imaginary creatures. From 9 to 18 months the young child shows great interest in the intentions and interests of others and combines her intentions with those of others. This means she is able to share tasks and meanings and ritual behaviours embedded in such things as eating with others, joining in with songs, performing to and with others and much more. As the young child becomes more used to using objects and tools and parts of her body she begins to represent her ideas and thoughts by making marks using a finger, a pen, a crayon or paint, by cutting and tearing, sticking and combining. An early protoconversation between mother and infant can be regarded as one of the precursors of expressive and representational thought. This was what Trevarthen thought and expressed in much of his work.
