Communication

Development in
Infancy
ELS122
 Communication Development in Infancy

This covers the Prelinguistic stage of language development:

approximately the first 12 months of life.
• During the first year of an infant's life speech-perception abilities gradually become
shaped by the language heard so that the ability to hear the differences among many of
the sounds that are not used and their language is lost by about one year of age. By late
and their first, infant's normally will have had a great deal of experience listening to
speech and will begin to comprehend the meaning of some words.
• Thus, the infant does not use words, they tend to babble more in social situations.
 Typical patterns of Responses to Sound and Speech in the
First year of life
Newborn • Is startled by a allowed noise
• Turns head to look in the direction of the sound
*Although, every child • Is calmed by the sound of a voice
• Prefer mother's voice to a stranger
development differs from • Discriminates mania the sounds used in speech
one another.
1 – 2 mos. • Smiles when spoken to
• Thus, both the adult
3 – 7 mos. • Respond differently to different intonations (friendly or
and the infant are angry manner)
constantly influencing
one another in 8 – 12 • Response to name
establishing mos. • Response to ‘no’
conversation like vocal • Recognize phrases from games (peekaboo or close-
open gestures)
interactions during a • Recognize words from routines (waves to say goodbye)
period will before the • Recognize some words (mama or dada)
child uses words.
 The Expression of
Communicative Intent
Before Speech
 Characteristics of Intentional Communication
 Deciding whether any one instance of behavior is intentionally communicative of an infant
is very difficult. So, here are the criteria to distinguish them:

1. The child makes eye contact with the partner while gesturing or vocalizing often
alternating his or her gaze between an object and the partner.

2. The child gestures and vocalizations have become consistent and ritualized.
Ex: Opening and closing her hands while she wanted something rather than attempting to reach the
object herself) the vocalization she used, ‘eh eh’ as one that she consistently used in situations in
which she wanted something.
• Another child would probably use a different sound in the same it is a communicative signal
invented by a child.
 Characteristics of Intentional Communication

3. After a gesture or vocalization the child poses to wait for a response from the
partner.

4. The child persist in attempting to communicate if he or she is not understood and

sometimes even modifies behavior to communicate more clearly.

• When an infant's behaviors are viewed in terms of such criteria, there is not a distinct boundary
between behavior without communicative intent and intentional communication, nor an exact
age at which we classified an infant as intentionally communicative. Rather, the child moves
gradually toward an understanding of goals and the potential role of others in achieving them.
Communication between parent and baby
Characteristics of Intentional Communication

When we try to determine whether an infant has begun to communicate intentionally,

even small differences in the situations observed or the criteria used to classify
gestures or vocalizations as intentional will affect our judgments, but certainly the
transition from unintentional communicator or to intentionally communicator there is
a major development for both the child and the child's caregivers.

 This is not to say that the infant who is not yet using words understand the
community the communicative process in the same way an older child does.
 Functions of Early Communicative Behaviors
 Most systems distinguish at least between vocalizations or gestures that
influence the listener to do something and direct the listener's attention.

1. Imperative Communicative Function

A. Rejection
Consistent gestures or vocalizations are used to
terminate an interaction.

• Example: The child pushes away on offered

object and vocalizes, or uses a gesture or
vocalization that and an action.

 
 Functions of Early Communicative Behaviors
B. Request
Consistent gesture or vocalizations are used to get the partner to do something or to help
the child achieve a goal.
 
•  Request for social interaction. Used to • Request for an object. Used
attract and maintain the partners attention like a to indicate desire for an object
child who is being ignored might use a vocalization that the child cannot reach
or gestures to get the caregivers attention
 Functions of Early Communicative Behaviors
• Request for action. Used to initiate an action by the listener like the
infant might lift her hands and use vocalization when she wants to be
picked up.

2. Declarative Communicative function or comment

Consistent gestures or vocalizations are used to direct the partner’s attention for
the purpose or jointly noticing an object or event.
Example: • Pointing used for directing the partner’s
• The infant might show attention to an object.
an object to the
caregiver by holding it
out and vocalizing, or
the infant might give an
object to the caregiver.
 Forms of Early Communicative Behaviors

Early communication takes place using both gestures and sound. 

 
Pointing
• Most infants begin pointing at objects or pictures between 6 and 10 months of age.
• They learn that the appropriate response to a caregiver's point is to look in the direction
indicated by the finger, not at the end of the finger itself.
• By 12 months, meaning infants will point at an object themselves and then shift their gaze
to make eye contact with the listener, checking whether their points have been noticed.

In the infant's development, both gestures and sound can, and normally do,
serve as symbols. The emergence of both types of symbols reflects an
important development or change in the child's mental ability.
 For understanding the gesture, they also begin to understand words.
 Forms of Early Communicative Behaviors

Early communication takes place using both gestures and sound. 

 
Vocalizations (Babbling)
• It's used by the children shortly before they begin learning conventional birds have
received much attention because they form an interesting lie between pre-linguistic
communication and speech.
• It contains consistent sound patterns and used in consistent situations, but are unique to
the child rather than based on the adult language, are referred to as Protowords.

Ex: lala = grandmother, mama = mother, dada/baba = father, mmm = yes/being angry
 Forms of Early Communicative Behaviors
Vocalizations

• Sometimes, vocalizations are always

linked with particular gestures (like hand
waving).

• Over time, the vocalizations became

more phonetically stable and less tied to
a particular action.
 The Assessment of Communicative Intent
Low-structured Observation (method)

• The caregiver is instructed to play with

the child in a natural way, and a trained
observer scored the child's behavior
either during the session or from a
videotape.
 The Assessment of Communicative Intent
Structured Observation (method)
• One manipulates the situation somewhat to increase the likelihood off of serving the
behavior of interest.
Example: a communicative impatient task could be used to entice the child to
produce requests.
 The child might be presented with an attractive toy inside a slight tightly covered
plastic container. An infant who is not yet communicating intentionally might bang
the container and fuss or cry in frustration, while another preverbal infant might
hand the container to an adult, make eye contact, point to the toy and/or
vocalize, and persist in such behaviors that seem to be directed toward adult.
 Similarly, one could see how the child Express as rejection by presenting the
child with a less desirable boy while more desirable toys are interviewed but out
of reach.
 The Assessment of Communicative Intent
MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (CDI)

• The mother's child is asked to report on the words comprehended or said and is
asked specific questions about her child's communicative behavior, in which
mothers are able to identify their children's communicative act consistently.
• Used for infants 8 to 16 months of age and the other for toddlers 16 to 30 months of
age.

Thus, these assessments have revealed that there are wide variations in the ages at
which children learn language, a continuing goal in research is to find reliable early clues
that would predict whether a child is having difficulty acquiring language
 Cognition, Social Cognition, And International
Communication
Piaget Cognitive Development
• Created by Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget's hypothesis that supports the
emergence of International Communication.
• It argues that the infant is innately endowed with certain reflexes and with basic
processes for learning from its interaction with objects in the environment. Thus, the
infant's knowledge is constructed through a series of predictable stages in cognitive
development.
 Cognition, Social Cognition, And International
Communication
Piaget Cognitive Development
• Between ages 8 and 12 months (Piagetian stage 4), infants begin to understand the
relation between actions and outcomes. She will begin to experiment with actions to
see what the result will be, and start to be able to think ahead about what the result
of action might be. Also during this period, the infant will begin to anticipate what
typically happens to her surroundings, which babies begin to communicate
intentionally when they have learned that they are causes for events.
Ex: A crying child who assumes that the caretaker will
leave her just by looking that she’s standing up.

Hence, the infant is attaining a means-ends concept,

understanding that problems can be solved mentally so
that a goal can be attained by methods other than trial-
and-error.
 Cognition, Social Cognition, And International
Communication
Piaget Cognitive Development
• Although this is very influential, other terrorists have pointed out that it's just limited
to learning the child's understanding of the material world.
• Ignoring the importance of the child's social nature. There is a major maturational
change takes place in the infant's social cognition. Around 9-10 months the infant
becomes able to share experiences with others.
The Social Context of the
Preverbal Infant
In describing the social context in which communication
emerges.
 Sound Of The Caregiver's Speech: “Listen to me!"
Baby Talk (a speech address to babies)

• Also called as Infant-directed Speech (IDS) and Child-directed Speech (CDS).

• Is an adult imitation of childlike speech (Your my tweetie pie?) and special
vocabulary words like choo-choo and go-go-gaga, along with string denials that you
would ever use baby talk.
• Have Prosodic features like higher pitch, more variable pitch, and exaggerated
stress.
 Sound Of The Caregiver's Speech: “Listen to me!"
Baby Talk (a speech address to babies)
 Sound Of The Caregiver's Speech: “Listen to me!"
Baby Talk

• Researchers find out that 6-month-old babies preferred the positive effect, whether it
had the typical baby talk features (high/exaggerated pitch) or not (normal style),
babies prefer "happy talk" rather than baby talk.
• Children can learn language even if they are not in loving interactions, given their
flexible language abilities, but adult-infant attachment may be involved in their
optimal development.
• Thus, babies learn best from “happy talk,” which the caregivers mood affects their
language development.
Sound Of The Caregiver's Speech: “Listen to me!"
The sound of the caregiver's voice provides the foundation for the child's entry
into language learning.
• This means that the voice will continue to carry information about the emotional
state, but the child will eventually discover that it also consists of sound, that these
sounds create meaningful words, and that the words combined to convey even more
complex messages.

Word learning itself could also be facilitated. There is a tendency to pronounce

labels for objects more distinctly in baby talk.

However, as the time changes, Baby talk varies, which we do not know yet how the
adult should talk to a child.
 Conventional Nature of the Caregiver Speech:
“Talk to me!”
It is argued that the mother's primary goal in talking with their infants was to have a
conversation with them. Even when the adult knows that the infant does not yet understand
language, the adult behaves as if the child's response is a turn in the conversation.
 Conventional Nature of the Caregiver Speech:
“Talk to me!”
Observing the conversations, as the adults allowing the infant's behavior in a turn-taking
manner of interaction shows it affects in the infant’s behavior, which is to produce more
speechlike response or vocalizations.
• Behaving this way tends to help the child get the idea that communication is possible.

Adults Interpret Infants Behavior

2 mos. old crying = wanting a diaper changed or being hungry (discomfort)
• Interpreting different message with different cries, and noticed the correspondence
between the vocalizations and the effect they have on others
 Conventional Nature of the Caregiver Speech:
“Talk to me!”

Children learn to talk with a wide range of linguistic experiences.

• As the caregiver's talk to infants in a way that is not only in teaching but also
encourages the baby to participate affects their rate of language development.
• Compares to a mother’s interaction of consistent short utterances makes the child
gained better responsive language abilities.
 Context for the Emergence of Object Reference:
“Look at that!”

Ex:
Playful Interaction - Like wiggling a toy cow and says, "Look at the Cow! What
does the cow say? It says 'mooo-mooo'"
Objects Labeling – Like pointing a banana fruit and teaches the child how to
say it.
 Context for the Emergence of Object Reference:
“Look at that!”
• Around nine months of age, infants begin to understand that other people are intentional
beings, have thoughts and goals, and that there can be a sharing of minds.
• Children whose mothers encourage joint attention to the objects and supply labels for
them, increase the cobbler is faster in the early language acquisition period.
• Joint attention is based on a positive and affectionate relationship between the infant
and adult in which they share experiences. (Ex: Flashcards play and other drills)

Words are most likely to be learned when adults focuses on what the child is
interested in, providing a word at the moment, rather than trying to direct the
child's attention and actively teach the child vocabulary.
 Context for the Emergence of Object Reference:
“Look at that!”

• Child-centered interaction can affect more than just for vocabulary. It is more productive
by using contingent comments (comments made when the mother discusses an object
of joint focus of attention or narrated an ongoing activity), this predicted better language
skills latter months of infancy.
• When the caregiver follows the child's interests and bases the next utterances on what
the child is focusing on, the caregiver is employing a verbally sensitive or responsive
interactional style, contrasted with a style that is constantly redirecting the child's
attention (like pointing).
 Context for the Emergence of Object Reference:
“Look at that!”

• Although, a child's linguistic development matters and differs in cultural values.

• Cultural values may begin to be transmitted by mother-infant interaction at a very early
age, affecting subtle aspects of child social socialization, like how American, Japanese
and Botswana cultures have different interactions with their child's development.
• This resulted that infants generally comprehend many words before they begin to say
words themselves.
 Talk in Structured Situations: "Hear what we say!"

• The way these highly structured situations, like games and routines, can provide
formats for the development of early communication signals.
• Eventually, within the game context, both a parent and a child are truly communicating
with each other, such interactions may help the child get the idea that it is possible to
communicate, and eventually know what is said in particular communicative situations.
 Talk in Structured Situations: "Hear what we say!"

• The way these highly structured situations, like games and routines, can provide
formats for the development of early communication signals.
The expression of
communicative the overall quantity of speech that the child
intent before speech overhears is not so important for the rate of
language development, but the quantity of
direct adult-to-child speech is. Like how
caregivers language usage does at least affect