BOX 4.6 Baby Reading Sixteenth-month-old Julie is left alone temporarily with a visiting grandfather. Wishing to distract the child from her mother's absence, he starts "reading" a picture book to her. On each page is an animal and its "baby." Julie shows interest as a spectator until they came to a picture of a kangaroo and its "joey." She quickly says "Kanga, baby." Pointing to a shirt with Kanga and Roo (from Winnie the Pooh), she says again, "Kanga" "baby." Grandfather repeats each utterance. Then he says: "Where's Julie's Kanga?" knowing that she has recently received a large stuffed animal from Australia. With great excitement, Julie pulls the stuffed animal over to her grandfather and, pointing to the book, says "Kanga, baby," then points to the stuffed toy, "Kanga" and to the joey in the pouch, "baby." Communication had been reached with much laughter and repetition of the Kanga/baby routine. Even at the one-word utterance stage, children can "read," "refer," and "represent" across settings (Brown, personal communication).