Typical Development of Infants (0-12 months)

Question 1

The Development of Social Communication - Hearing

Answer 1

Hearing:
• an infant’s hearing is best in the same frequency range of the human voice
• auditory preferences:
“ search for human voice
“ stop crying to attend to mother’s voice

Question 2

Social Communication

Head positions of newborn:

Answer 2

• Neonate turns head to human face
• Caregiver interprets head positions as communication signals
• Three head positions:
1. Central → interpreted as an approach or attending signal 2. Peripheral → interpreted as signal of infant aversion / flight
3. Loss of visual contact → interpreted as termination of
interaction

Question 3

Infant-caregiver interactions: Secure attachment

Answer 3

• Attachment is one specific aspect of the relationship between a child and a parent with its purpose being to make a child safe, secure, and protected.”
• well-established association between parent-child attachment and child language development.

Question 4

Social communication

Gaze - 2 types

Answer 4

Mutual eye gaze: 1 1⁄2 months (6 weeks)
Infant is able to fix visually on communication partner’s eyes and hold the fixation (used to signal intensified attention)
Gaze coupling: 3 months
“A turn-taking interaction of making and breaking eye contact”

Question 5

Social communication - other

2 points

Answer 5

“Social” smile: 6- 8 weeks (some 3 weeks)

Responds to social games such as peek-a- boo (shows anticipation): 6 months

Question 6

Social Communication

Emotions - 3 points

Answer 6

Emotions shown at birth
Interest - Brows raised, mouth rounded, lips pursed
Distress - Eyes closed tightly, mouth square and angular
Disgust - Nose wrinkled, upper lip elevated, tongue protruded

Question 7

Social Communication

Protoconversations

Answer 7

3 months
• “Vocal interactions between parents [caregivers] and infants that resemble the verbal exchanges of more mature conversations.” (Owens, 2012, p439)
- Identifiable phases – turn taking (both adult and child active participants)
- Initiation and disengagement

Question 8

Early Receptive Language Development

3 months

Answer 8

3 months - Turns head when hears voice (may not be in direction of sound)

Question 9

Receptive Language Development

Answer 9

By 12 months:
• understands up to 10 words
• recognises name
• understands simple commands without gesture, e.g., ‘no’ or ‘get the ball’
• understands names of some familiar objects / people
• Identifies one body part
• Selects object in a two-way object discrimination task

Question 10

Development of intentionality: 0 - 8m

Answer 10

1. 0 – 8 months: perlocutionary
   • Intention is inferred by adults
   • e.g., looks to adult’s face; reaches for objects; smiles during interactions

Question 11

Gesture Types

Deictic gestures:

Answer 11

establish reference by calling attention to or indicating an object / event
interpreted by their context

Question 12

Gesture Types

Representational / Iconic / Symbolic gestures

Answer 12

approx 12 months:
‘symbolize a referent that does not change with context’
for example:
• flapping arm to represent a bird flying;
• child putting hands to mouth as though holding something to indicate wants a cookie;
• cupped hand to mouth to represent ‘drinking’

Question 13

Early Intentions - Proto-imperatives

Answer 13

between 8 and 18 months of age
Proto-imperatives: used to get an adult to do something or not do something
(imperative > request / order / command
e.g., requests for objects / actions)

Question 14

Early Intentions - 8-12m

Answer 14

8 – 12 months: (stage of intentionality = illocutionary)

• requesting (actions & objects) • labelling / commenting • protesting / refusing

Question 15

Five (5) stages of prelinguistic communication:

Answer 15

1. Phonation stage: birth – 2 months
2. Primitive articulation stage: 2 – 4 months
3. Expansion stage: 4 – 6 months
4. Canonical stage: 6 – 10 months +
5. Jargon stage: 10 months +

Question 16

Stage 1: Phonation stage (reflexive crying and vegetative sounds)

Answer 16

birth to 2 months
• Reflexive vocalisations:
- e.g., cries, grunts, and burps that seem to be automatic responses reflecting the physical state of the infant
• Vegetative sounds:
- Grunts and sighs associated with activities
- Clicks and other noises associated with feeding
• Quasi vowels (produced with the vocal folds at rest) – produced frequently

Question 17

Stage 2: Primitive articulation stage (cooing and laughter)

Answer 17

2 to 4 months
• cooing or gooing sounds
• vowel-like sounds with brief consonantal elements produced at the back of the mouth (velar)
• 12 weeks onwards crying decreases and vegetative sounds (e.g., grunts) begin to disappear
• 16 weeks – sustained laughter emerges

Question 18

Stage 3: Expansion stage (vocal play)

Answer 18

4 to 6 months
• Some overlap between stages 2 and 3
• Distinguishing characteristic of stage 3 is:
- the longer series of segments
- production of prolonged vowel (full vowel-like sounds)
- consonant-like sounds (marginal babbling)
• Extreme variation in loudness and pitch
• Vowels have more variation in tongue height and position
• Vocal play: squeals, yells, bilabial trills

Question 19

Stage 4: Canonical stage (canonical babbling)

Answer 19

6 months and older:
Canonical babbling occurs by 10 months of age in full- term normally developing infants
• Reduplicated babbling:
Similar strings of consonant-vowel productions “ba-ba”, “ma-ma”, “da-da”
- Non-reduplicated / variegated babbling:
Variation of both consonants and vowels from syllable to syllable “nee-ma”,

Question 20

Stage 5: Jargon stage

Answer 20

10 months and older
• Jargon is characterized by strings of babbled utterances that are modulated primarily by intonation, rhythm and pausing
babbling and jargon continue as children acquire first meaningful words (stages overlap)

Question 21

Expressive Language Development - 12 months

Answer 21

• use of gestures (showing, reaching, giving, pointing)
• complex babbling
• imitates animal noises
• first words typically appear around 1st birthday
- child uses the word consistently
- shows understanding of the meaning or concept
• produces 5 or more words (12 – 14 months)
• many of the first words spoken by children during the 1st year are nouns
• uses voice and gesture to get objects (12 – 14 months)
• produces true words during play
• mixes words with jargon
• approx. 25% intelligible to unfamiliar listeners

Question 22

Some key messages: By the age of one

Social, Expressive & receptive

Answer 22

Social:
• joint attention
• communication intent
• communication with reciprocity (e.g., reciprocal smiling)
Expressive:
• use of gestures
• complex babbling
Receptive:
• recognises name
• understands simple commands such as ‘no’
• understands names of some familiar objects / people

Question 23

Typical Hearing Expectations - 0-7 months

0, 1, 4, 7

Answer 23

Shortly after birth:
• Baby should startle by a sudden loud noise
• Blink or open eyes to such sounds
By 1 month:
• Beginning to notice sudden or prolonged sounds
• Pause and listen to such sounds when they begin
By 4 months:
• Quietens or smiles at the sound of your voice
• Turns head/eyes towards you when come up from behind/side
By 7 months:
• Turn immediately to your voice from across the room [if not too occupied with other things]

Question 24

Typical Hearing Expectations - 9-12 months

Answer 24

By 9 months:
• Listen attentively to familiar everyday sounds
• Search for quiet sounds made out of sight
• Shows pleasure in babbling loudly
By 12 months:
• Shows response to his/her name and to other familiar words
• May also respond to ‘no’ and ‘bye-bye’ when cannot see accompanying gesture

Question 25

Typical Feeding Development - 0-6 months

0-4, 4-6

Answer 25

0-4 months
- Breastmilk or formula only - Suckle - Head control acquired
4-6 months
- Predominantly breastmilk or formula
- Beginner purees may be introduced at this time
- Suckle matures into suck pattern
- Tongue protrusion reflex diminishes as child improves oral control for purees
- Begin to develop balance for sitting
- Can bring hands to midline

Question 26

Typical Feeding Development - 6-9 months

11 points

Answer 26

• Predominantly breastmilk or formula
• Having regular meals of smooth purees
• Introduction of soft finger foods
• Introduction of lumpy purees
• May be introduced to cup drinking although will use sucking/suckling to drink from cup
• Tongue protrusion no longer observed
• Uses up-down biting (phasic bite) and “chewing” pattern. Some integration of tongue lateralisation occurring. May gag at times with lumps and soft solids
• Develop independent sitting
• Hand to mouth play is observed +++
• Child begins to assist with food and explore finger feeding
• Pincer grasp begins to develop

Question 27

Typical Feeding Development - 9-12 months

7 points

Answer 27

• Still having some breastmilk or formula
• Managing lumpy purees and a range of soft chewable finger foods
• Able to cup drink independently
• Still predominantly up-down jaw movements but beginning to improve precision and speed.
• Able to lateralise foods or chewing most of the time
• Able to finger feed and pincer grip becomes more refined
• Begins to grasp spoon with whole hand

Question 28

NHMRC Infant feeding guidelines

6 points

Answer 28

• Initially starts solids once per day after milk feed
• Once taking a few tablespoons consistently per day, increase to 2 meals per day
• Ideally taking 3 solid meals by 8-9 months
• Introduce morning and afternoon snacks around 10 months
• Offer foods before fluids around 10 months
• Transition onto cows milk as a drink after 12 months provided eating a range of food groups (max intake of 600 ml/day)

Question 29

Play
0-6m - 3 points
6-12m - 2 points

Answer 29

Birth - 6 months
• Exploratory play-investigation of properties of toy, object, self, other.
• Sensorimotor play
• Play focused on attachment and bonding with parents (shacking a rattle,hitting a toy with lights)
6-12 months
• Sensorimotor play begins to evolve into functional play (using toys for their purpose, e.g. hitting something with a hammer, pushing a car on the ground)
• Social play with adults

Question 30

The Development of Social Communication - Vision

Answer 30

Vision: Importance of eye contact (sign of interest and attention)
• vision best focuses at about approx. 20 cm (8 inches)
• this is where most infant caregiver interactions occur
• during feeding a mother’s eyes are at a distance of approx. 19 cm (7.5 inches)
→ child focuses on the mother’s face, especially the mother’s eyes

Question 31

Early Receptive Language Development

4-6 months

Answer 31

4-6 months - Responds to own name by turning head

Question 32

Early Receptive Language Development

5 months

Answer 32

5 months - Responds to ‘no’ said with inflection

Question 33

Early Receptive Language Development

11 months

Answer 33

11 months - Responds to music with body movements

Question 34

Development of Intentionality: 8 - 11m

Answer 34

2. 8 – 11 months: illocutionary
   • Emergence of intentional communication (still primarily non-verbal)
   → deictic gestures: showing, reaching, giving, pointing

Question 35

Development of Intentionality: 12m+

Answer 35

3. Approx. 12 months +: locutionary

• Words accompany / replace gestures

Question 36

Deictic gestures: 8m

Answer 36

8 months +:
→ showing:
→ giving:
→ reaching: sometimes opening and closing fingers

Question 37

Deictic gestures: 12m

Answer 37

12m:

→ pointing

Question 38

Early Intentions - Proto-declaratives:

Answer 38

between 8 and 18 months of age
Proto-declaratives: “preverbal attempts to get an adult to focus on an object or event by acts such as showing off or showing or pointing out objects, pictures… for the purpose of establishing social interaction or joint attention”
(declaratives > statement / assertion)

Question 39

Early Intentions - 12m

Answer 39

By 12 months:
• joint attention
- “An ability to follow the direction of a communication partner’s gaze, or pointing, or showing an object with the intention of drawing the communication partner’s attention to the object or event” (Kaderavek, 2011, p 432)
• communication intent (usually emerges around 8 months of age, primarily non-verbal)
• communication with reciprocity (e.g., reciprocal smiling)