The List of Main Concepts

• Communication in early childhood

– Pre-verbal stage
• Means of communication (babbling, cooing and eye-contact)

The List of Main Concepts

• Pre-verbal stage: Intentional Communication
– Rejection
– Requests
• Requests for social action
• Requests for action
• Requests for an object
The List of Main Concepts
• Comment
– Sharing the moment of noticing
. Care Giver’s Speech
- Features of baby talk
COMMUNICATION IN EARLY CHILDHOOD
• COMMUNICATION DEVELOPMENT IN INFANCY
• Preverbal Stage
• Babies are responsive to language even when they are very young.
Preverbal Stage

• How does a new born communicate his needs?

Preverbal Stage
• by means of
crying.

• What does the success of the communication depend on?

Preverbal Stage
• On the ability of the infant to signal his needs and the ability of the caregiver to interpret
these messages.

Preverbal Stage
• And what else?
Preverbal Stage
• On the ability of the caregiver to understand these cries,

• AND ALSO the success of the communication depends on the caregiver’s willingness to
interpret these cries.
Preverbal Stage
• Sometimes people can be too busy to run to the baby’s cot each time she cried. Then, the
baby’s cries do not get his needs met. This causes the new born to become anxious and nervous.
WHAT HAPPENS IF THIS CONTINUOUSLY HAPPENS?

Preverbal Stage
• If this continuously happens, the baby grows up with a different understanding of love
and affection in comparison in comparison to a new born who gets attention whenever he cries.

Examples of the Typical Order of Emergence of Responses to Sounds and Speech in the
First Year, with Approximate Ages
• Newborn

• 1-2 mos.

• 3-7 mos.

• 8-12 mos.
•

• Is startled by a loud noise

• Turns head to look in the direction of sound
• Is calmed by the sound of a voice
• Prefers mother s voice to a stranger's
• Discriminates many of the sounds used in speech
• Smiles when spoken to

• Responds differently to different intonations (e.g., friendly, angry)

• Responds to name Responds to "no"

• Recognizes phrases from games (e.g., "Peekaboo," "How big is baby?") Recognizes
words from routines (e.g., waves to "bye-bye") Recognizes some words
• Newborn
• 1-3 mos.

• 4-6 mos.

• 6-8 mos.

• 8-12 mos.
• Cries
• Makes cooing sounds in response to speech ("oo,“ "goo")
• Laughs
• Cries in different ways when hungry, angry, or hurt
• Makes more speechlike sounds in response to speech
• Plays with some sounds, usually single syllables (e.g., "ba," "ga")
• Babbles with duplicated sounds (e.g., "bababa")
• Attempts to imitate some sounds
• Babbles with consonant or vowel changes (e.g., "badaga," "babu")
• Babbles with sentencelike intonation (expressive jargon/conversational babble)
• Produces protowords
Preverbal Stage: other means of communication

• Crying
• Babling and other vocalizations such as cooing
• Eye contact
• Mimicry and gestures

Preverbal Stage: Babbling and Cooing

• Another important adult-new born interaction is the babbling sounds that infants make.
These sounds draw adults’ attention. We also find babbling sounds very sweet and funny. Babies
can have a conversation with an adult by cooing and babbling.
Preverbal Stage: Babbling and Cooing

• Babbling and cooing serve a very important function in the development of an infant.
What is it?
Preverbal Stage: Babbling and Cooing

• By this way infants have a rehersal of a real conversation.

• Have you ever had a conversation with infant?

Preverbal Stage: Babbling and Cooing

• Some how they know that we take turns in a conversation. If you have not done it yet you
have missed a very humbling opportunity.
Preverbal Stage: Babbling and Cooing

• In what other ways can such conversational exercises support the infants development?
Preverbal Stage: Babbling and Cooing
• Such conversational exercises are good for the infant’s psychological development
because the baby will feel safe and loved. It also helps the infant’s social development because it
will facilitate the baby’s social interaction with others and will make her sociable.
• All these experiences will eventually support the baby’s cognitive development.
Preverbal Stage: Babbling and Cooing

• All these experiences will eventually support the baby’s cognitive development.

Preverbal Stage: Babbling and Cooing

• ALSO adults who spare time and effort to have such conversation with their babies
indicate the baby that s/he is a member of the family and the society. Therefore, it is very
important for the infants’ psychological, social and of course social development to have such
dialogues with adults.

Preverbal Stage: eye contact

• Another important part of adult-new-born interaction is eye-contact. All healthy new-
borns should be able to interact by means of eye-contact. Adults who are blind from birth have
problems about relating themselves to their babies.

Preverbal Stage: eye contact

• What is the role of eye-contact in adult – new born interaction?

Preverbal Stage: eye contact
• It helps both the infant and the mother to establish an affective bond. A relationship based
on love and affection makes the infant to feel secure.

Preverbal Stage: eye contact

• The infant’s ability to establish a bond through eye contact is a healthy sign. When the
new-born has an abnormality, s/he has a difficulty in establishing eye-contact. For example
autistic babies avoid eye-contact.
Preverbal Stage: intentional communication
• Imagine yourself doing baby-sitting for a 10-month old baby. She wants to hold her
favourite toy and it is on the table. How do you think she will make you give the toy to her?

Preverbal Stage: intentional communication

• Establishing eye contact
• Gesture and vocalization (e.g. pointing at/ opening and closing hand and saying ‘eh eh’ or
‘ıh ıh’)
• Waiting for a response
• If a response does not come, try again.
Preverbal Stage: intentional Communication
The last resort (sometimes the first) is
always: CRYING
Preverbal Stage: intentional communication
• Generally, first signs of intentional communication appears around 8-10 months.
Intentional Communication in Infancy
• THE FUNCTION OF EARLY INTENTIONAL COMMUNICATION BEHAVIOURS
• There are 3 main types:
– Rejection
– Requests
– Comment
Intentional Communication: requests
• REQUEST: Requests can be divided into 3 main types.
• REQUEST FOR SOCIAL INTERACTION
• REQUEST FOR AN OBJECT
• REQUEST FOR ACTION
Intentional Communication: requests
• REQUESTS FOR SOCIAL INTERACTION

• How do you think they make a request for social interaction?

• How do we do this?

Intentional Communication
• By giving a toy to the adult and using vocalization.

• By making eye contact.

Intentional Communication: requests

• REQUEST FOR AN OBJECT

• How do you think they do this?

Intentional Communication: requests
• Establishing eye contact
• Gesture and vocalization (e.g. pointing at/ opening and closing hand and saying ‘eh eh’ or
‘ıh ıh’)
• Waiting for a response
• If a response does not come, try again.

Intentional Communication: REQUEST FOR ACTION

Towards the end of the first year, they do this. It is another strategy to make contact with others.
If you want to win the heart of a baby you need to comply with the requests for action coming
from a baby. How do they typically do it?
REQUEST FOR ACTION
• Consistent gestures and vocalization are used to ask the adult to do something for her (e.g.
lifting arms and saying up/ hoppa) when they want to be picked up.

Intentional Communication: rejections

• REJECTION:

• How do they typically reject an offered object or food?

Intentional Communication: rejections

• Gesture (e.g.pushing the object away, turning head) and vocalization (e.g. screaming).

Intentional Communication: comment

• COMMENT
• The baby draws the adult’s attention to an object by
• showing it to him/her or
• by giving it to the adult or
• by pointing at an object.
Intentional Communication: comment
• Have you looked outside from a window with a 10-month old baby? We tend to talk about
cars, people and animals. In time, the baby learns to make comments about cats and people
passing by. How do adults react to the baby’s such comments?
Intentional Communication: comment
In what way do you think this helps the baby’s development?
Comment
• The aim is to share that moment of noticing. This joint attention to an object or an event is
very important in the process of baby’s cognitive and linguistic development. Why do you think
it is so important?
Sharing that Moment of Noticing
• As she grows up, the infant invites the adult to have a joint attention to an object. S/he
would like to share his/her fascination with an object.
• Don’t you do that too? Things you notice become more interesting when you share them
with someone.
Sharing that Moment of Noticing
• Suppose that you see a coat which liked in a shop. You would like to show it to a
friendjust share it. Luckily you are with a girl friend. How would you invite a friend to share a
moment of noticing?
Sharing that Moment of Noticing
• But somehow your friend does not pay attention to it at all. Would you be offended? If
everyone around you does the same thing, you may begin to think that nobody loves you.
Sharing that Moment of Noticing
• Suppose that the adult rejects this invitation frequently. She says things like the following:
‘Bütün gün seninle mi uğraşacağım?’ ‘Yeter artık!’ ‘Sus bakıyım!’. Or suppose that there are two
more young children at home. And the mother is too busy to share a moment with the baby.
THEN WHAT HAPPENS?

Sharing that Moment of Noticing

• The baby’s skills to open a conversation will be jeopardized.

• The baby’s curiosity to investigate things will diminish in time.

Sharing that Moment of Noticing
• His desire to share things with others will dissappear.
• In the long run he may begin to think that his likes and opinions are not valuable and
others do not like him.

Sharing that Moment of Noticing

• Developing a shared understanding of things also includes a shared humour. This is very
important in the process of developing an interactive and intellectual bond between the adult and
the baby.
Sharing that Moment of Noticing
Sharing things this way makes the infant ready what to expect next. For example, when
the baby points at a cat in the street, he knows that his mum will say ‘A pisi varmış burada. Pisi
pisi.’ After several occasions of this, the baby may begin saying ‘pisi pisi’ when he noticed a cat.
Then, his invitation for joint attention to cat will be verbal.
Sharing that Moment of Noticing
• Based on this I want you to think about the babies who are looked after by many different
adults. When the care taker is changed, the baby’s conversation partner whom she shared jokes,
games and other things.

The Forms of Early Communicative Behaviors

• Pointing

• vocalizations

• Intonation patterns
The Forms of Early Communicative Behaviors

• Vocalizations and gestures are originally linked together

Care Giver’s Speech
• We do not speak in the same way that we speak to each other. We modify our speech
style. This speech is called BABY TALK.
• Why do we talk like that?
Care Giver’s Speech

• Can anyone do baby talk?

Care Giver’s Speech

• Have look at the following photos. And try to do baby talk.

Care Giver’s Speech

• What are the features of baby talk? These are universal features.
Features of Baby Talk
• We tend to play with the prosodic features of our speech style. What do I mean with
prosodic features? It is related to the music of the language. It is all about intonation patterns.
We use a higher pitch and a more varied pitch. We exaggerate stress. We tend to use shorter
sentences and words.
Features of Baby Talk
• We tend to use shorter sentences and words. Baby talk sounds as if words are not very
important but the music of our talk is more important. This way we make our talk more
entertaining.
Features of Baby Talk
• Researchers tend to think that baby talk is universal. That is, adults tend use a different
speech style when they talk to babies. We do this intuitively. Of course features of this talk vary
from one culture to another.

Features of Baby Talk

• WHY DO YOU THINK WE MODIFY OUR SPEECH WHEN WE TALK TO BABIES?

Features of Baby Talk
• One reason may be to hold the baby’s attention so that the adult can form an emotional
bond with him /her. When the baby is focused on the adult’s speech, she
• becomes quiet,
• makes an eye contact with the speaker,
• listens to him/her and
• smiles to him/her.
• Babies like getting attention.
Features of Baby Talk
• Baby talk is a way for the adult to express that she loves the baby and wishes to make an
emotional bond with him/her. Once this bond is established, gradually the baby will notice that
adult’s speech has some parts and some sounds have meanings

Features of Baby Talk

• Developing this kind of interaction with the baby can also help the caregiver to check
whether the baby’ s health is OK or not. When a baby gets ill, the caretaker can tell it from
his/her unusual quietness. A baby who is usually very responsive to the caregiver’s talk may
become quiet because of high temperature or any other discomfort.
Features of Baby Talk
• Exaggerated speech prosody is useful to express some functions such as PRAISE, PLAY,
PROHIBITING or COMFORTING. It is also used to highlight the important part of what the
adult is saying.
Features of Baby Talk
• Researchers found that the amount of interaction between the adult and the baby is very
important in the long run because it has a direct influence on the rate of language development of
the child.

Features of Baby Talk

• In addition, researchers also found that those babies whose mothers’ used shorter
sentences and baby talk, had better receptive language abilities. What are receptive language
abilities? Understanding what you hear. It is in a way related to listening skills in language
learning.
SUM UP
• Babies can do a lot in terms of interaction even at pre-verbal stage.
• They can make a request, reject an offer and make comments or have others make
comment on particular objects of their own choice.

SUM UP
• For this reason caregiver’s attention and eagerness to interact with the infant is terribly
crucial for the child’s linguistic, psychological and social development.