A Lifetime of Communication: Transformations Through Relational Dialogues

A Lifetime of Communicationexplores the developmental processes that make for uniquely human change and growth. In this distinctive work, author Julie Yingling utilizes a single case example of a child, her parents, and other influential figures to demonstrate developmental interaction and transformational life events. Using relational and dialogic perspectives, Yingling follows the child from infancy into adolescence and adulthood, through the stages which the child acquires the means to communicate, to form and develop through relationships, to build human cognitive processes, and to understand the self as a responsible part of the social world. The work presents traditional and cutting-edge developmental theories as well as current research and relational perspectives in a palatable framework, employing a case example from a person's life at the start of each content chapter. Yingling examines communication and cognition in the various stages of human development, making connections between communication, relationships, and maturation. She also distinguishes the biological and physiological portions of development from those that are relational and self-directed. She concludes the volume with a summary of relational dialogical theory and a discussion of the implications of this perspective of development-both for the future of communication study and for personal growth. This monograph offers many new insights to scholars in human development, relationships, family studies, social psychology, and others interested in communication and relationships across the life span. It is also appropriate for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses in relationships, developmental communication, and relational communication.

Julie Yingling earned her doctorate in Speech Communication at the University of Denver in 1981. Since completing her dissertation on infant speech, she has pursued a program of research in communication development, including studies of infant-parent interaction, children's friendships, and caregiver-young patient interaction. Her career started at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and has taken her to the University of Northern Colorado, the University of Iowa, and Humboldt State University, where she currently chairs the Communication Department.