The contributors to this volume discuss different paradigms and approaches in infant language and cognition, pushing the frontiers of research by innovatively combining methods, introducing new measures, and demonstrating the use of technologies and measurement approaches that can inform the study of word learning and categorization, gaze, attention, gesture, and physiological functions.

Introduction. P. McCardle, J. Colombo, L. Freund, Measuring Infant Language. Part 1. Recognizing Patterns . R.N. Aslin, E.I. Newport, What Statistical Learning Can and Can't Tell Us About Language Acquisition. J.R. Saffran, Acquiring Grammatical Patterns: Constraints on Learning. L. Gerken, Are Infants Constrained in Their Linguistic Generalizations? Some Theoretical and Methodological Observations. M. Rice, How Different is Disordered Language? Part 2. From Patterns to Meaning . J.F. Werker, C.T. Fennell, Infant Speech Perception and Later Language Acquisition: Methodological Underpinnings. S. Waxman, How Infants Discover Distinct Word Types and Map Them to Distinct Meanings. J.S. Deloache, P.A. Ganea, V.K. Jaswal, Early Learning Through Language. Part 3. Predictors of Language Emergence . J. Colombo, D.J. Shaddy, O.M. Blaga, C.J. Anderson, K.N. Kannass, W.A. Richman, Early Attentional Predictors of Vocabulary in Childhood. A.N. Meltzoff, R. Brooks, Social Cognition and Language: The Role of Gaze Following in Early Word Learning. S. Goldin-Meadow, Using the Hands to Study How Children Learn Language. Part 4. Models and Methods to Study Infant Language. P.K. Kuhl, Linking Infant Speech Perception to Language Acquisition: Phonetic Learning Predicts Language Growth. L.B. Cohen, J. Brunt, Early Word Learning and Categorization: Methodological Issues and Recent Empirical Evidence. G. Marcus, H. Rabagliatti, Language Acquisition, Domain Specificity, and Descent with Modification. L. Freund, Neuroimaging Tools for Language Study. Finale . P. McCardle, L. Freund, G. Marcus, Pathways to Infant Language Research: Commentary and Future Directions.