Chapter 5 - Social and Communicative Bases of Early Language and Speech Flashcards
Social Smile
Occurs at approx 3 weeks in infancy; smile of recognition, as when the infant sees mom
Mutual Gaze
Mother/caregiver + child look at each other
Protoconversation
Vocal interactions b/w mother and child that resemble the verbal exchanges in mature conversations
e.g. mutual smiles/eye gazes, vocalizing, turn taking, etc.
communication intention
purpose of an utterance
Bracketing
Use of prosodic or rhythmic cues to detect divisions between clauses and phrases
Marked by pauses, pitch changes, vowel lengthening
stressing a word to enable them to take it out of that speech stream - “you want the BALL”
Clustering
Use of predictable phonotactic units within words
Motherese
Infant-directed speech
The speech and language that is modified by an adult when used with an infant; simplified language
Joint reference/joint attention
2+ individuals share a common focus on one entity, such as a toy
Joint Action
Two individuals develop shared behaviors in familiar contexts
Mother and child playing with a toy, reading a book
What contributes greatly to language development? 3 things
Cognition, Perception, Social interaction
Context
context or social setting used heavily by the caregivers to talk about objects in the immediate environment
- predictable quality to facilitate comprehension and learning
- give/take is learned, turn taking during conversational exchanges
- nonlinguistic parameters of language to facilitate learning/comprehension
Developmental Timeline: newborn
- able to track using their eyes at a very close range within a few hours after birth
- show pref for human faces
- able to discriminate some parameters of voice and speech
- will stop crying to attend to mom’s voice
- actively search for human voice and demonstrate pleasure/surprise when finding the face that is the source of voice
- different states regulated by bodily processes such as ingestion, elimination, respiration and hunger
Developmental Timeline: Birth to 6 mo
Birth - actively involved in the interactive process with adults
2 wks - able to differentiate his mother’s face and voice
1 mo - infants will smile at most anything, including mom - social smile (smile of recognition) will come later
6 wks - able to coordinate amount of time spent gazing and will change his gaze patterns based on the mother’s gaze
3 mo - infant smiles less at objects and more at caretakers - beginning of smiling as a social form of communication
- amount of dialogue b/w infant and mother increases significantly
3-4 mo - two response patterns - rituals and game playing
Birth to 6 mo
Cooing develops parallel to smiling
infant’s cooing is easily stimulated by attention and speech
Other important considerations: caregiver interactions, child temperament, parental stress, eye gaze, response patterns
Why is a caregiver’s interactions important to the development of speech?
The mother or caregiver’s sensitivity to her infant facilitates early communication process.
Attentive to sleep/wake cycles
Using feeding/bath time and other routines as a means to facilitate language learning
During communicative exchanges, the caregiver should…
- have superior flexibility of timing and anticipate the infant’s behavior
- lead the infant’s behavior
- alternate among different means or ways of doing things to achieve a desired outcome
- be creative in introducing variations of her repetitive vocalizations
Mother’s (caregivers) responses (behaviors) should be…
Modified to engage the infant
Include exaggerated facial expression and voice
Increase in frequency of vocalizations
*behaviors heavily influenced by the infant’s sleep-wake cycles
Characteristics of Motherese
short utterances; simple syntax
topics limited to immediate present
heightened use of facial expressions/gestures
frequent questioning/greeting
treats infant behaviors as meaningful
exaggerated pitch and loudness
frequent verbal rituals
Importance of caregiver interactions
infants learn stimulus- response sequence
- child cries, mother responds
- infant develops the expectation that he or she can change or control the environment
- immediate positive parental responsiveness increases a child’s motivation to communicate
Infant vocalizations + caregiver responses increases
turn taking skills
Child temperament (birth-6 mo)
Heavily influences interaction process
- negative traits include short attention span, diminished eye contact (autism), easily aroused emotions, high activity level
- related to poor narrative skills and decreased vocabulary later in life
Parental stress induced by
level of support, finances, family stability, mental health checks, etc.
How parental stress affects development of language
Strongly related to:
- poor expressive/receptive language
- diminished vocabulary
- adverse cognitive and behavioral outcomes
Eye Gaze (birth - 6 mo)
- moms will modify this in addition to speech
- eye contact is much longer b/w mother and infant than adult to adult
- moms monitor infant gaze and will adjust conversation topic accordingly
Two types of gaze patterns
MUTUAL GAZE
Dyadic gaze
Mother and child look at each other
Important for the formation of attachment or bonding
GAZE COUPLING
Turn taking interaction of making and breaking eye contact
Two Response Patterns (Birth - 6 mo)
RITUALS
Daily routines that involve mother and infant e.g. bath, feeding, play time
Provide the child with predictable patterns of behavior and speech
GAME PLAYING:
peek a boo, this little piggy, etc.
Exchange of turns, rules for each turn, particular slots for words and actions
Protoconversations
Vocal interactions b/w mother and child that resemble verbal exchanges of more mature conversations
identifiable interactional phases in routines and game playing
Includes initiation, mutual orientation, greeting, a play dialog, disengagement
Both partners active participants
7-12 mo
- Child asserts more control over the infant-mother interaction
- child learns to communicate INTENTIONS more clearly/effectively y
- primary modes for expression are gestural and vocal
- shows increased interest in toys (objects) and increasing ability to follow conversational cues
- mother will make increasing reference to objects, events, and people
- child demonstrates selective listening to familiar words and compliance with simple requests
References + Selective listening =
Compliance (7-12mo)
8-9 mo
8-10 mo
Infant can imitate simple motor behaviors as seen when asked to wave bye-bye
8-9 mo
Communication intentions develop. At 8 mo, some infants may comprehend as many as 20 words
9 mo
Can follow maternal pointing and glancing
Intentionality
GOAL DIRECTEDNESS
Includes ability to share with others
exhibited when child begins to encode a message for someone else
e.g. a child may touch his mother, gain eye contact and then gesture toward an object
Facts about Intentionality
- initially expressed primarily through gestures
- functions such as requesting, interacting, attracting attention are first fulfilled by prelinguistic means and then later, by language
- early communication functions related to infant’s overall cog development and are seen in a 3 stage sequence - perlocutionary, illocutionary, locutionary
Perlocutionary
Age 0-8 mo
Intention inferred by adults
ATTENTIONAL INTERACTIONS
- no goal awareness, attends to and responds to stimuli
CONTINGENCY INTERACTIONS
undifferentiated behavior to intiate or continue a stimulus, anticipates events, vocalizes for attention
awareness of goal
Illocutionary
AGE: 8-12 mo
Emergence of intentional communication
ENCODED INTERACTIONS:
- coordinated plan to achieve goals
- gestures, brings objects to mom for help, climbs for desired objects
Illocutionary substages
Sub stage 1
Child will show objects
Sub Stage 2
Displays full range of gestures
conventional - request, point, signal notice, show, give, protest
unconventional - tantrums, showing off
Gestures are functional!
Locutionary
AGE: 12 MO+
CHARACTERISTICS:
Words accompany or replace gestures to express communication functions previously expressed in gestures alone or gestures plus vocalizations
- During 6-12 mo, child begins to attach meaning to symbols
- 2 strategies to segregate speech directed at them: CLUSTERING + BRACKETING
CLUSTERING
Use of predictable phonotactic units within words
Bracketing
Use of prosodic or rhythmic cues to detect divisions between clauses and phrases
Divisions marked by maternal pauses, pitch changes, vowel lengthening, or by use of specific words
Caregiver modifications - preparatory activities
BEHAVIOR
preparatory activities
DESCRIPTION
Free infant from physiological state dominance
EXAMPLES
Reduce hunger pains/fatigue, sooth or calm infant when upset
Caregiver Modifications - state-setting activities
BEHAVIOR
state-setting activities
DESCRIPTION
manipulate physical environment to optimize interaction
EXAMPLE
Move into infant’s visual field; attain attention by modifying vocalizations (motherese)
Infant - Elicited Social Behaviors
caregiver responses to infants - ways caregivers modify their responses to engage infants
Caregiver Modifications - Maintenance of communication framework
BEHAVIOR
Maintenance of communication framework
DESCRIPTION
Use of continuates by caregiver
EXAMPLE
Modulate speech; provide infant with focus of attention and action
Caregiver modifications - Infant-like modifications of adult actions
BEHAVIOR
Infant-like modifications of adult actions
DESCRIPTION
Variation of caregiver activities
EXAMPLES
Motherese or Baby Talk; imitate baby movements
Teaching Strategies
Parallel Talk
Self Talk
Recast
Questioning
Expansion
Extension
Repetition
Direct Teaching
Parallel Talk
parent talks about what the child is doing
you are rolling the truck; you are kicking the ball
Self Talk
- parent describes their actions
- “I’m making your sandwich”; “I’m washing the dishes”
Recast
- preserves the meaning of the utterance but adds syntactic information
e.g. child says, “I like my dog”; recast would be “you like your dog, don’t you?”
Questioning
Asking children questions
Expansion
- Taking child’s incomplete or telegraphic utterance and making it into a complete, adult-like sentence
e.g. “read book” would go to “Mommy will read the book”
Extension
- Adult responds to child’s comment and adds information
e.g. Child says “I like milk” Adult says “Milk makes you grow. We get milk from cows”
Repetition
Utterances broken down and then combined and repeated
e.g. “Bring the book to me” may turn into “The book”, “Bring the book”, “Bring me the book”
Joint reference
Ability to differentiate one entity from many and to note its presence
Occurs when 2+ individuals share a common focus on one entity
V. important for lang development b/c it is within this context that infants develop gestural, vocal, verbal signals of directly attending or signaling notice
Direct Teaching
Direct imitation
Correcting an incorrect verbalization
Development of Joint Reference
4-6 wks: mom uses objects in child’s field of vision to gain attention
8 wks: infant will visually follow mom’s movements
12 wks: infant attends to utterances addressed to him/her
4 mo: infant follows mom’s line of regard and response quickens when mom says “look”
6 mo: infant may respond to object and/or intonational pattern to establish joint reference
7 mo: infant establishes joint reference by pointing/showing objects or events but without looking at an adult or confirmation
8-12 mo: reach, request, point, show, gestures first, then becomes gesture plus vocalization
3 aspects of joint reference
Indicating
Deixis
Naming
Joint Reference - Indicating
Assumes a gestural, postural, or vocal form
Mom shakes an object to gain a child’s attention
Joint reference - Deixis
Use of spatial, temporal, and interpersonal features of the content to aid joint reference
found in words such as here, there, this, that, before, after, you, me
involves using speaker’s perspective as reference
Joint reference - naming
Mother calls the infant’s attention to different objects and events in the immediate environment
infants are able to associate names with their referents prior to developing the ability to produce names
Joint Action
the development of shared behaviors that occur in familiar routines (between mother and child)
- These actions or events are called ROUTINIZED ACTIONS and include game playing and daily routines
- child learns turn taking and conversation skills via these events
Game Playing Characteristics/Notables
- early games begin almost from birth
- mom develops different games that in turn, become ritualized exchanges
- a prominent feature is the consistency of mom’s behavior both within and b/w these play sequences, especially repetitiveness of mom’s vocal and nonvocal behaviors
- 6 wkks: infant can initiate games by modifying his/her state of alertness
- 13 wks: infant has adopted a role in social games and signals readiness to begin play, by using facial expressions and body movements
Cultural Diff b/w USA/Japan
USA
more likely to respond to both positive (coo) and negative (cries) sounds
Use of exaggerated pitch
More likely to talk to maintain the child’s attention
Japan
More likely to respond to negative (cries) sounds
Talk to elicit vocalizations from infant
