This study attempts to link research concerning intentional communicat
ion in infants with research pertaining to the phonology of prelinguis
tic vocalisations. Its goals were to evaluate the communicative value
of vocalisations during their development and to determine whether inf
ants use a specific kind of vocalisation (nonlinguistic or prelinguist
ic) when they communicate with others. Twenty-four 6- to 15-months-old
infants were observed in a situation of request tasks. The results su
ggest that infants increasingly use the vocal channel and increasingly
direct their vocalisation to other individuals as they get older. Nev
ertheless, infants do not seem to employ a specific kind of vocalisati
on when they communicate.