Head and eye orientation was used as an index of verbal comprehension in a study of earliest language acquisition. The development of the first association between sound and meaning and the later growth of semantic markers were observed in the author's own child between the ages of eight and a half and eleven and three-quarter months. There was evidence of a systematic internalization of meaning and a gradual co-ordination of comprehension and speaking. " Dada, " the first word, and two later lexical items were found to be organized in terms of three gradually acquired semantic dimensions.
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