ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with a dichotomy of opportunity. It explores why, in a communication-rich environment, some children are enabled to be effective communicators: language rich, confident, ready to learn, and socially competent. The infant brain is structurally designed for absorption and understanding, and the earliest environment are critical for establishing the process of communication. Indeed, “attachment” and “communication” are inseparable bedfellows, for a child’s urge to communicate, and to be communicated with, is manifest from first hours and days. Each element will impact on the child’s later capacity to function including verbal communication and capacity to form relationships. Programmes designed to promote, enhance and deepen parents’ and others’ emotional connection and communication with young children are now widely available. The level and fluctuation of cortisol levels in the infant brain can now be captured simply and non-invasively, even from very young children, from saliva swabs taken at different times of the day.
