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Infant signs as intervention? Promoting symbolic gestures for preverbal children in low-income families supports responsive parent–child relationships
Abstract
Gestures are a natural form of communication between preverbal children and parents which support children's social and language development; however, low-income parents gesture less frequently, disadvantaging their children. In addition to pointing and waving, children are capable of learning many symbolic gestures, known as “infant signs,” if modeled by adults. The practice of signing with infants is increasingly popular in middle-income populations around the world, but has not been examined as an intervention to promote positive qualities of the parent–child relationship. This study tested whether an infant sign intervention (ISI) encouraging low-income parents to use symbolic gestures could enhance the parent–child relationship. A final sample of twenty-nine toddlers and their families were followed for 7 months after assignment to the ISI or a control group. Children and mothers in ISI group families used more symbolic gestures than those in control families. Mothers’ in the ISI group were more attuned to changes in children's affect and more responsive to children's distress cues. Mothers in the intervention group also viewed their children more positively, reducing parenting-related stress. This study provides evidence that a simple infant sign intervention is an effective tool to promote bidirectional communication and positive interactions for preverbal children and their parents.
... Some of this research followedor mentioned and analyzedthe standardized protocol and materials from registered programs such as Baby Sign® (in Refs. [39,40,42,43]), Tiny Talk and Sign and Sign (in Ref. [41]), while others created and evaluated original training with similar characteristics. Overall, all parents have been trained to use a series of symbolic gestures (conventional or pertaining to sign language) always paired with the corresponding spoken words during daily interactions with their children. ...
... Aims. All studies implemented parent training to test their hypothesis on the impact of gesture use, either on language development [38,39], ON THE MOTHER-CHILD DYAD RELA-TIONSHIP [40,42], OR BOTH [43][44][45]. . Only Howlett and colleagues [41] investigated the effects of gesture use on mothers' level of stress. ...
... Vallotton [42] tested whether an infant sign intervention could enhance parent-child interaction in low-income populations. Data were collected three times every 3.5 months, starting from the beginning of the study. ...
... Parents can begin using signs with their infants between ages 4 and 6 months, expecting infants to respond to and use signs between age 9 and 11 months, when they start using other intentional nonverbal communication cues, such as waving or pointing (Fusaro & Vallotton, 2011;Vallotton, 2011aVallotton, , 2011b. Children are likely to continue using infant signs until they have oral language sufficient to communicate their needs and interests (Vallotton, 2012a(Vallotton, , 2012b and to use them to supplement their verbal communication when they are too upset to talk (Konishi, Karsten, & Vallotton, 2018). Research on the use of infant signing has demonstrated that children who learn to sign during infancy have fewer tantrums (Acredolo & Goodwyn, 2002), better language skills as toddlers (Goodwyn & Acredolo, 2000), and improved social-emotional skills characterized by a more interactive relationship with parents and caregivers (Moore, Acredolo, & Goodwyn, 2001;Vallotton, 2012aVallotton, , 2012b. ...
... Children are likely to continue using infant signs until they have oral language sufficient to communicate their needs and interests (Vallotton, 2012a(Vallotton, , 2012b and to use them to supplement their verbal communication when they are too upset to talk (Konishi, Karsten, & Vallotton, 2018). Research on the use of infant signing has demonstrated that children who learn to sign during infancy have fewer tantrums (Acredolo & Goodwyn, 2002), better language skills as toddlers (Goodwyn & Acredolo, 2000), and improved social-emotional skills characterized by a more interactive relationship with parents and caregivers (Moore, Acredolo, & Goodwyn, 2001;Vallotton, 2012aVallotton, , 2012b. Preverbal children who sign can use them to initiate communication with caregivers regarding their needs (Vallotton, 2008). ...
... Preverbal children who sign can use them to initiate communication with caregivers regarding their needs (Vallotton, 2008). Parents also report benefits for themselves including less parenting-related stress, and more affectionate interactions, whereas observational studies have shown improved responsiveness to children's distress among experimental group parents using infant signs (Gongora & Farkas, 2009;Vallotton, 2012aVallotton, , 2012b. Each of these factors could help reduce controlling feeding practices by parents, and these benefits also extend to early child education settings (Vallotton, 2011a(Vallotton, , 2011bVallotton, 2009). ...
Responsive parenting is a promising framework for obesity prevention, yet attempts to date have largely relied on parents accurately interpreting their child's cues. Infant signing or “baby sign language” could enhance these interventions by improving bidirectional parent‐child communication during the preverbal and emerging language years. In a clinical trial testing a responsive parenting intervention designed for obesity prevention, we pilot tested a brief intervention at age 40 weeks with a subset of participating dyads that taught the signing gesture of “all done” to improve parental recognition of satiety. In addition, we surveyed all participating mothers at child age 18 months on the use of infant signing gestures in the prior year. 228 mothers completed the survey including 72 responsive parenting group mothers that received the signing instructions. A majority of mothers, 63.6%, reported teaching their infant signs in the prior year, and 61.4% of infants were using signs to communicate at 18 months (median signs = 2). The signs for “more” and “all done” were used by over half of study participants, and were the most common signs used. Other signs related to eating or drinking were commonly used. Signing intervention group infants were more likely to use the sign for “all done” than controls (63.9% vs. 45.5%; P=.01), but there was no difference between groups with regards to the use of the sign for “more” (56.9% vs. 51.3%; P=.43). Signing is commonly used by parents of young children and holds potential to improve parental responsiveness and obesity prevention efforts.
... Children's use of symbolic gestures can influence the qualities of caregiver-child interaction known to promote children's language. Vallotton (2009Vallotton ( , 2012 found that children's use of symbolic gestures promotes higher levels of caregivers' responsiveness. Further, experimental intervention studies indicate that promoting use of symbolic gestures results in parent-child interactions are more coordinated and responsive, including more eye contact and affectionate touch (Gόngora & Farkas, 2009), mothers responding to a higher percent of child communication cues (Vallotton, 2012), and mothers' making more appropriately mind-minded comments about children's behavior (Kirk et al., 2013). ...
... Vallotton (2009Vallotton ( , 2012 found that children's use of symbolic gestures promotes higher levels of caregivers' responsiveness. Further, experimental intervention studies indicate that promoting use of symbolic gestures results in parent-child interactions are more coordinated and responsive, including more eye contact and affectionate touch (Gόngora & Farkas, 2009), mothers responding to a higher percent of child communication cues (Vallotton, 2012), and mothers' making more appropriately mind-minded comments about children's behavior (Kirk et al., 2013). Therefore, use of symbolic gestures increases the sensitivity of caregiver-child interactions in ways that support child language. ...
Children's use of pointing and symbolic gestures—early communication skills which predict later language—is influenced by frequency of adults’ gestures. However, we wonder whether, like language, the sensitivity of adult–child interactions is also important for encouraging child gesturing, rather than simply quantity of adult gestural input. Furthermore, children's use of gestures influences qualities of adult–child interaction, eliciting greater responsiveness and richer communication. Thus, we investigated the moderating role of nonparental caregiver sensitivity on the relationship between caregivers’ and infants’ use of pointing and symbolic gestures. We observed 10 infants (ages 6–19 months) over 8 months with a total of 24 student caregivers completing short-term internships, recording adult and child use of pointing and symbolic gestures. We used longitudinal growth models to examine change in gesturing and moderating roles of caregiver sensitivity in the relations between caregiver and child gesturing behavior. Caregivers’ sensitivity moderated effects of caregivers’ symbolic gestures on infants’ pointing and symbolic gestures, and the effects of infants’ pointing and symbolic gesture frequency on caregivers’ gesture use. Thus, caregivers’ gestures are most effective in supporting child gestures when in the context of sensitive interactions. Sensitivity is central to supporting children's early communicative behaviors, including pointing and symbolic gestures.
... In the second place, a work on the use of gestures and particularly of gesture-word combinations could be embedded in direct (i.e., speech and language therapies, early care family-centered therapies) and indirect (parent or teacher training) interventions with late talkers. Studies have demonstrated that modelling gestures-through direct training or natural exposition to caregivers' gestural input-can promote children's language development, especially in children with difficulties in such areas [91][92][93]. ...
Young children use gestures to practice communicative functions that foster their receptive and expressive linguistic skills. Studies investigating the use of gestures by late talkers are limited. This study aimed to investigate the use of gestures and gesture–word combinations and their associations with word comprehension and word and sentence production in late talkers. A further purpose was to examine whether a set of individual and environmental factors accounted for interindividual differences in late talkers’ gesture and gesture–word production. Sixty-one late talkers, including 35 full-term and 26 low-risk preterm children, participated in the study. Parents filled out the Italian short forms of the MacArthur–Bates Communicative Development Inventories (MB–CDI), “Gesture and Words” and “Words and Sentences” when their children were 30-months-old, and they were then invited to participate in a book-sharing session with their child. Children’s gestures and words produced during the book-sharing session were transcribed and coded into CHAT of CHILDES and analyzed with CLAN. Types of spontaneous gestures (pointing and representational gestures) and gesture–word combinations (complementary, equivalent, and supplementary) were coded. Measures of word tokens and MLU were also computed. Correlational analyses documented that children’s use of gesture–word combinations, particularly complementary and supplementary forms, in the book-sharing session was positively associated with linguistic skills both observed during the session (word tokens and MLU) and reported by parents (word comprehension, word production, and sentence production at the MB–CDI). Concerning individual factors, male gender was negatively associated with gesture and gesture–word use, as well as with MB–CDI action/gesture production. In contrast, having a low-risk preterm condition and being later-born were positively associated with the use of gestures and pointing gestures, and having a family history of language and/or learning disorders was positively associated with the use of representational gestures. Furthermore, a low-risk preterm status and a higher cognitive score were positively associated with gesture–word combinations, particularly complementary and supplementary types. With regard to environmental factors, older parental age was negatively associated with late talkers’ use of gestures and pointing gestures. Interindividual differences in late talkers’ gesture and gesture–word production were thus related to several intertwined individual and environmental factors. Among late talkers, use of gestures and gesture–word combinations represents a point of strength promoting receptive and expressive language acquisition.
... Given that family is the first context in which children socialize and attain emotional competences, parents have a huge influence on their children's social-emotional development. Although there is little evidence of socialemotional development differences between boys and girls, an international study showed that boys tend to display more developmental delays in social-emotional development and girls are more emotionally reactive [20]. ...
(1) Background: The preschool stage is a period of great psychological changes that requires the support of parents and significant adults for optimal development. Studies show that maternal mental health can be a risk factor in parenting, affecting the social-emotional development of children. (2) Methods: The present study seeks to shed light on the relation between depressive symptoms, parental stress in mothers and social-emotional development of their preschool children, using a total of 123 mother-child dyads with low Social-economic Status (SES). In mothers, depressive symptomatology and level of parental stress were evaluated, as well as social-emotional development in children. A possible mediation effect between maternal depressive symptoms and parenting stress is expected. (3) Results: The results indicate that higher levels of depressive symptoms and parenting stress in mothers relate to greater difficulties in social-emotional development of their preschool children. (4) Conclusions: These results are clinically relevant from the perspective of family therapy: Parents need support to decrease their levels of parenting stress in order not to jeopardise their children’s social-emotional development.
... Our participants may well have been at a ceiling level of caregiver input, resulting in gesture adding very little. Gesture may be particularly beneficial to language development in environments with limited resources and a diminished quality of parental input (Kirk et al., 2013), and may be useful as part of language interventions in low income families (Vallotton, 2012). ...
Children learn words in environments where there is considerable variability, both in terms of the number of possible referents for novel words, and the availability of cues to support word‐referent mappings. How caregivers adapt their gestural cues to referential uncertainty has not yet been explored. We tested a computational model of cross‐situational word learning that examined the value of a variable gesture cue during training across conditions of varying referential uncertainty. We found that gesture had a greater benefit for referential uncertainty, but unexpectedly also found that learning was best when there was variability in both the environment (number of referents) and gestural cue use. We demonstrated that these results are reflected behaviourally in an experimental word learning study involving children aged 18‐24‐month‐olds and their caregivers. Under similar conditions to the computational model, caregivers not only used gesture more when there were more potential referents for novel words, but children also learned best when there was some referential ambiguity for words. Thus, caregivers are sensitive to referential uncertainty in the environment and adapt their gestures accordingly, and children are able to respond to environmental variability to learn more robustly. These results imply that training under variable circumstances may actually benefit learning, rather than hinder it.
... This study adds further information about the mechanisms through which those benefits may occur; our findings describe how preverbal and newly verbal toddlers are able to use signs to enhance their active and intentional participation in regulatory interactions with caregivers by communicating a greater variety of concepts, and engaging in a greater variety of regulatory strategies. Indeed, research has shown that infants' symbolic gestures in response to caregivers elicit greater responsiveness from caregivers (Vallotton, 2009), and in an experimental study, that parents' and children's symbolic gestures can promote positive co-regulated interactions between parents and toddlers (Vallotton, 2012). There are a number of potential benefits to caregivers and children using symbolic gestures. ...
... Ukázalo sa, že znakovanie upúta pozornosť detí a udržiava ich sústredené (Felzer, 2000), pomáha v komunikácii s deťmi, ktoré by inak čelili jazykovej bariére a tiež urýchľuje komunikáciu s deťmi trpiacimi poškodením reči. Ďalšie hodnotenia preukazujú napríklad zlepšené skóre v IQ testoch, keď relevantné skupiny dosiahli vek 8 rokov (Acredolo & Goodwyn, 2000), zlepšenie jazykových schopností detí (Goodwyn a kol., 2000), alebo dokonca lepší emocionálny rozvoj, obzvlášť ak rodičia so svojím dieťaťom používajú znakovanie (Vallotton, 2012). To činí program Tiny Signers perfektným programom k doplneniu programu Incredible Years, keďže poskytuje učiteľom možnosť lepšie organizovať vyučovanie a ďalej podporuje inkluzivitu uľahčením komunikácie medzi deťmi, ktoré nie sú v jazyku inštrukcií plynulé alebo majú iné poškodenie. ...
... Další hodnocení například poukazují na zlepšení výsledků IQ testů u dětí ve věku osmi let, které byly od útlého věku vystaveny znakování (Acredolo & Goodwyn, 2000). Zlepšily se také jazykové dovednosti dětí Goodwyn et al., 2000) a jejich emoční rozvoj, především pokud znakování využívali jako nástroj komunikace s dítětem také jejich rodiče (Vallotton, 2012). Program Tiny Signers je tak vhodným doplňkem k programu Incredible Years, neboť jej doplňuje v zaměření na inkluzi a usnadnění komunikace dětem, které například plně neovládají jazyk či mají zdravotní handicap. ...
... Signing has been shown to captivate children's attention and keep them focused (Felzer, 2000) and, to help communication with children who otherwise face a language barrier, or to accelerate communication with children suffering from language impairment. Other evaluations show, for example, improved scores on IQ tests when children who have experienced early signing reach eight years of age (Acredolo & Goodwyn, 2000), improved language capabilities of children (Goodwyn, et al., 2000) and better emotional development, especially if parents also use signing with their child at home (Vallotton, 2012). This makes Tiny Signers a useful programme to complement Incredible Years as it further supports inclusivity by facilitating the communication between children who are not fluent in the language of instruction or have other impairments. ...
The good practice guide is one of the key outputs of the Erasmus+ Strategic Partnership Project: Supporting Social and Emotional Competences of Pre-school Children from Disadvantaged or Culturally Different Environments, co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union: 2014-1-CZ01-KA201-001988. It reviews pre-school education systems in four project partner countries: e Czech Republic, Slovakia, England and Wales. Although Wales is a region of the UK, it has had its own government since 1999 giving it a large degree of independence in terms of educational policy.
The guide includes a summary of basic background information on pre-school education provisions in the four countries, a summary of available statistical evidence, an over- view of policy approaches, outcomes from a survey of preschool teachers and professionals conducted as a part of the project, and finally a series of examples of good practice from the partner countries. This report concludes with a comparative review of statistical evidence, implications of the survey outcomes, and recommendations for future analytical inquiry into the field of preschool education and Early Childhood Education and Care (ECEC). This guide serves as a short summary of the rationale, findings, and good practice identified by the project.
... Learning American Sign Language (ASL), which has been shown to help improve communication between a mother and her child, provides an additional parenting tool that can increase the ID/SA mother's self-efficacy, decrease her anxiety, and therefore lead to more successful parenting. Thus, using signs helps promote more positive interactions and relationships with parents (Gongora & Farkas, 2009;Vallotton, 2011Vallotton, , 2012. ASL is the fourth most commonly used language in the United States (National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders [NIDCD], 2000). ...
This experimental study tests the effects of an intervention where recovering illicit drug- and substance-abusing mothers were taught American Sign Language as a means for improving general self-efficacy and reducing state anxiety as related to parenting their infant/child. Findings demonstrated that the experimental group exhibited higher general self-efficacy and lower state anxiety. In essence, there was evidence of an increase in the mother's efficaciousness and a decrease in state anxiety.
This article reports on how symbolic gesturing was applied in a nursery setting. Forms of signing systems have been well documented as contributing to communication, predominately used alongside speech when there is a different mother tongue or a physical impairment [Goodwyn, S. W., & Acredolo, L. P. (1993). Symbolic gesture versus word: Is there a modality advantage for onset of symbol use? Child Development, 6, 688–701]. Symbolic Gesturing (SG) is an emerging area to support pre-verbal infants in communicating more effectively. In this article, SG was evaluated as way of reflecting and developing practitioner’s emotional responses and initiations with the infants in their care. The narratives of three practitioners using SG were gathered over several months and revealed how SG created further opportunities for reflection regarding the emotional relationships with infants they cared for. SG was considered a valuable approach to enhancing the emotional interactional connections with infants, resulting in closer, more attuned relationships.
Previous literature has demonstrated cultural differences in young children's use of communicative gestures, but the results were mixed depending on which gestures were measured and what age of children were involved. This study included variety of different types of gestures and examined whether children's use of communicative gestures varies by their cultural backgrounds and ages. 714 parents of children (6-36 months old) from U.S.A. English-, German-, and Taiwan Chinese- speaking countries completed the questionnaire on their children's use of each gesture described in the survey. We used logistic regressions to examine the effect of children's culture and age, and the interaction effect (culture×age). Children were more likely to use all gestures except reaching, showing, and smacking lips for "yum, yum" as their age increases. In addition, there were gestures that showed significantly different probabilities across children's cultural backgrounds. A significant interaction effect was shown for five gestures: reaching, showing, pointing, arms up to be picked up, and "quiet" gesture. Results suggest that the influence of culture on young children's communication emerges from infancy.
Recent studies have shown the importance of mentalizing or reflective function of caregivers as one of the variables that predict awareness and secure attachment in children. From this background there is a review of the literature on psychological interventions focused on promoting mentalizing or reflective function in parents and preschool educators. 17 studies published between 2000 and 2013 are considered. The results show that most of the studies analyzed and developed in theoretical models, with those who consider emerging studies based on mentalizing aimed at parents and educators interventions. Within the latter most are aimed at early intervention in children aged 0-3 years, with few studies in preschool children (3-5 years old) within an educational context that the effects reported in children.
The idea that infants communicate prior to their first words is not new to anyone who has spent time with infants. However, the recognition that preverbal children can communicate both intentionally and symbolically prior to speech, through use of infant signs, also known as symbolic gestures or Baby Signs®, has opened a window into the mind of the infant for scientists, parents, and early childhood educators. For a parent, a child’s use of signs can reveal the mental contents—desires, needs, memories—of the individual infant whose mind they most want to know. For scientists, symbolic gestures can reveal the general capacities of the infant mind—what preverbal children are capable of thinking, feeling, remembering, and representing about their lived experiences. For early childhood educators, who are charged with caring for groups of young children, and with continually enhancing their own knowledge of child development to develop as professionals, infant signs are a tool to both understand individual children in their care, and learn about the often underestimated social, cognitive, and communicative capacities of preverbal children. In this chapter, we describe our theoretical frameworks for understanding the use of infant signs, summarize existing research on infant signs in early childhood settings, reflect on the effects it has on professional development, and describe the principles and practices for using signs effectively. Finally, we discuss our concerns and current questions about this practice.
A review of published literature from 2000 to 2012 summarizing empirically based recommendations for supporting and strengthening child-caregiver relationships in the context of AIDS and poverty. The review covers children generally, and takes a strengths-based approach that builds on the resources and capacities of children, caregivers, families, and communities.
This study examines maternal talk and uses of the pointing gesture during interaction with young children in order to uncover the relationship between maternal and child pointing and talk. Forty- five low-income mother-child dyads were videotaped in their homes at child age 14 months. Results indicate that: (a) mothers and children who talk more point more during interaction, (b) the majority of pointing gestures are used to direct the hearer's attention, (c) mothers who communicate more with their children view their children as understanding more, (d) more educated mothers point more in the context of discussing a joint focus of attention and for conversation-directing purposes. Findings are discussed in terms of the relationship between maternal communi cative characteristics and child pointing and talk.
This study was conducted to further extend scaffolding research to low-income dyads because living in poverty may serve as a risk factor for experiencing difficulties in social and cognitive development during childhood. Scaffolding was examined in the context of mother-toddler dyads’ (N = 56) performance of a routine feeding task that was difficult for 2-year-olds to complete independently. Both verbal and nonverbal behaviours were microanalytically coded in order to characterise the successive scaffolding strategies by mothers, and their children’s responses. Also, scaffolding data were compared to data on joint attention and dyadic reciprocity obtained from a free-play task. Results show that mothers’ use of constructive verbal strategies during the feeding task was positively associated with joint attention and mother-initiated dyadic reciprocity, both of which may be viewed as indices of maternal sensitivity. Thus, the provision of verbal assistance may be one mark of maternal sensitivity during scaffolding in low-income dyads.
Describes the spontaneous development of symbolic gestures in a normal female infant from 12.5 to 17.5 mo of age. 13 gestures depicting objects, events, and qualities were developed, the majority in the context of structured routines involving adults. 16 additional symbolic gestures were purposefully taught to S by adults. All 29 gestures occurred frequently and were used flexibly to refer to real items and pictures. Combinations of signs with other signs and words were also noted; their initial appearance coincided with the advent of 2-word combinations. Despite the heavy use of symbolic gestures, vocal development was advanced, an indication that gesturing is not necessarily a result or cause of poor vocal skills. Data support H. Werner and B. Kaplan's (1963) contention that sensorimotor behaviors are natural candidates for early labeling. (14 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study compared the language skills in a group of very low-income toddlers with those of a middle-income sample matched on age and sex. The assessment instrument was the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (CDI) for toddlers, a parent report form. The scores for the low-income group were strikingly lower on the three key indices evaluated: size of expressive vocabulary, age of appearance of word combinations, and complexity of utterances. The entire lowincome distribution was shifted about 30% toward the lower end of the middle-income distribution for both productive vocabulary and grammatical development. The magnitude of these income/ social class effects was larger than reported in most prior reports for children in this age range. This finding underscores the cautionary note issued by the CDI developers, which states that the published CDI norms, based on a middle-class sample, may not be directly applicable to low-income samples.
Human activity is both organized and highly variable. Analysis of the variation illuminates the dynamic order in development, learning, and emotional change. Action is nowhere near as stable as the static conceptions of psychology predict. Dynamic structural analysis provides a framework and tools for analyzing the variation and detecting the order in it – the dynamic organization of self-constructed, socially embedded skills and activities (actions, thoughts, and emotions). Key discoveries and tools include: (1) the emergence of a series of cognitive abilities that form a universal scale for development and learning, (2) methods for analyzing microdevelopment and learning pathways, (3) tools for depicting emotional development, including affective splitting and cultural shaping, and (4) a model connecting cognitive growth with brain development.
Keywords:
brain development;
cognition;
dynamic structuralism;
emotion;
microdevelopment;
skill theory;
variation
Infants initially use words and symbolic gestures in markedly similar ways, to name and refer to objects. The goal of these studies is to examine how parental verbal and gestural input shapes infants' expectations about the communicative functions of words and gestures. The studies reported here suggest that infants may initially accept both words and gestures as symbols because parents often produce both verbal labels and gestural routines within the same joint-attention contexts. In two studies, we examined the production of verbal and gestural labels in parental input during joint-attention episodes. In Study 1, parent-infant dyads engaged in a picture-book reading task in which parents introduced their infants to drawings of unfamiliar objects (e.g., accordion). Parents' verbal labeling far outstripped their gestural communication, but the number of gestures produced was non-trivial and was highly predictive of infant gestural production. In Study 2, parent-infant dyads engaged in a free-play session with familiar objects. In this context, parents produced both verbal and gestural symbolic acts frequently with reference to objects. Overall, these studies support an input-driven explanation for why infants acquire both words and gestures as object names, early in development.
The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effect on verbal language development of purposefully encouraging hearing infants to use simple gestures as symbols for objects, requests, and conditions. To this end, 103, 11-month-old infants were divided into three groups, all of whom were seen in the laboratory for a variety of assessments, including standardized language tests at 15, 19, 24, 30, and 36 months. Parents of those in the Sign Training group modeled symbolic gestures and encouraged their infants to use them. Parents of infants in the Non-intervention Control group knew nothing about symbolic gestures or our special interest in language development. As a control for training effects (i.e., effects attributable to families being engaged in a language intervention program), parents of a second control group of infants (the Verbal Training group) were asked to make special efforts to model verbal labels. After comparisons of the two control groups minimized concerns about training effects, comparisons between the Sign Training and the Non-intervention Control group indicated an advantage for the Sign Training group on the vast majority of language acquisition measures. These results provide strong evidence that symbolic gesturing does not hamper verbal development and may even facilitate it. A variety of possible explanations for such an effect are discussed.
Bilingual children's language and literacy is stronger in some domains than others. Reanalysis of data from a broad-scale study of monolingual English and bilingual Spanish-English learners in Miami provided a clear demonstration of "profile effects," where bilingual children perform at varying levels compared to monolinguals across different test types. The profile effects were strong and consistent across conditions of socioeconomic status, language in the home, and school setting (two way or English immersion). The profile effects indicated comparable performance of bilingual and monolingual children in basic reading tasks, but lower vocabulary scores for the bilinguals in both languages. Other test types showed intermediate scores in bilinguals, again with substantial consistency across groups. These profiles are interpreted as primarily due to the "distributed characteristic" of bilingual lexical knowledge, the tendency for bilingual individuals to know some words in one language but not the other and vice versa.
Several cognitive accounts of human communication argue for a language-independent, prelinguistic basis of human communication and language. The current study provides evidence for the universality of a prelinguistic gestural basis for human communication. We used a standardized, semi-natural elicitation procedure in seven very different cultures around the world to test for the existence of preverbal pointing in infants and their caregivers. Results were that by 10-14 months of age, infants and their caregivers pointed in all cultures in the same basic situation with similar frequencies and the same proto-typical morphology of the extended index finger. Infants' pointing was best predicted by age and caregiver pointing, but not by cultural group. Further analyses revealed a strong relation between the temporal unfolding of caregivers' and infants' pointing events, uncovering a structure of early prelinguistic gestural conversation. Findings support the existence of a gestural, language-independent universal of human communication that forms a culturally shared, prelinguistic basis for diversified linguistic communication.
Children vary widely in how quickly their vocabularies grow. Can looking at early gesture use in children and parents help us predict this variability? We videotaped 53 English-speaking parent-child dyads in their homes during their daily activities for 90-minutes every four months between child age 14 and 34 months. At 42 months, children were given the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test (PPVT). We found that child gesture use at 14 months was a significant predictor of vocabulary size at 42 months, above and beyond the effects of parent and child word use at 14 months. Parent gesture use at 14 months was not directly related to vocabulary development, but did relate to child gesture use at 14 months which, in turn, predicted child vocabulary. These relations hold even when background factors such as socio-economic status are controlled. The findings underscore the importance of examining early gesture when predicting child vocabulary development.
Children from low–socioeconomic status (SES) families, on average, arrive at school with smaller vocabularies than children
from high-SES families. In an effort to identify precursors to, and possible remedies for, this inequality, we videotaped
50 children from families with a range of different SES interacting with parents at 14 months and assessed their vocabulary
skills at 54 months. We found that children from high-SES families frequently used gesture to communicate at 14 months, a
relation that was explained by parent gesture use (with speech controlled). In turn, the fact that children from high-SES
families have large vocabularies at 54 months was explained by children's gesture use at 14 months. Thus, differences in early
gesture help to explain the disparities in vocabulary that children bring with them to school.
This study considers the intergenerational consequences of experiencing socioeconomic disadvantage within the family of origin. Specifically, the influence of socioeconomic disadvantage experienced during adolescence on the timing of parenthood and the association between early parenthood and risk for harsh parenting and emerging child problem behavior was evaluated. Participants included 154 3-generation families, followed prospectively over a 12-year period. Results indicated that exposure to poverty during adolescence, not parents' (first generation, or G1) education, predicted an earlier age of parenthood in G2. Younger G2 parents were observed to be harsher during interactions with their own 2-year-old child (G3), and harsh parenting predicted increases in G3 children's externalizing problems from age 2 to age 3. Finally, G3 children's externalizing behavior measured at age 3 predicted increases in harsh parenting from ages 3 to 4, suggesting that G3 children's behavior may exacerbate the longitudinal effects of socioeconomic disadvantage.
Despite a variety of theoretical arguments to the contrary, sensitive caregiving makes an important contribution to the comprehension and emergence of speech. This research, informed by social ecological realism, documented that during the prelinguistic and one-word periods, caregivers routinely provided additional perceptual structure to their infants following communicative breakdowns. This sensitive adjusting of subsequent messages to infants contributed significantly to reaching a common understanding. Caregivers also modified their verbal messages in subsequent turns by making them more specific. In contrast, however, these elaborations did not contribute to achieving a practical consensus regarding ongoing events. These results suggest that the social ecological realist approach informing this research has important implications for theory, reviewing past empirical findings and future research. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The effectiveness of a behavioral parent training (BPT) intervention for improving maternal self-efficacy, maternal stress, and the quality of mother–toddler interactions has been demonstrated (Gross, Fogg, & Tucker, 1995). The 1-year follow-up of the 46 parents of toddlers (assigned to an intervention or comparison group) who participated in that study is reported. It was hypothesized that (a) BPT would lead to enduring positive changes in parenting self-efficacy, parenting stress, and parent–toddler interactions; and (b) the amount of parent participation in the intervention would be correlated with greater gains in parent–child outcomes at 1 year. All the families were retained and significant gains in maternal self-efficacy, maternal stress, and mother–child interactions were maintained. Minimal BPT effects were found for fathers. BPT dosage was related to reductions in mother critical statements and negative physical behaviors at 1-year postintervention. The findings are consistent with self-efficacy theory and support parenting self-efficacy as a target for BPT in families of young children. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Res Nurs Health 21:199–210, 1998
Although siblings act as socializing agents in cultures throughout the world (Weisner & Gallimore, 1977), historical and theoretical considerations have led many Western researchers to ignore or underestimate the positive contribution of siblings to the socialization of younger family members (Zukow, Chapter 1, this volume). Although the family is recognized as the matrix in which socialization first occurs, I will argue that siblings as well as adults engage in this process with younger family members. To assess the contribution of siblings to the socialization of younger siblings from a fresh perspective, I will address the social-interactive and perceptual processes underlying socialization. From this perspective, socialization is a process of co-construction in which caregivers and novice members are continuously building up and breaking down the social world from the ebb and flow of perceptual information. The degree to which siblings embody the role of socializing agent will be examined by evaluating evidence from Western and Third World studies. The discussion will consider the relative value, effectiveness, and uniqueness of socialization by siblings, including its impact on the direction of future research and the shape of emerging theories of socialization.
Introduction: Rizzolatti and Arbib (1998) argue in their exposition of the Mirror System Hypothesis that brain mechanisms underlying human language abilities evolved from our non-human primate ancestors' ability to link self-generated actions and similar actions of others (see Arbib, Chapter 1, this volume). On this view, communicative gestures emerged eventually from a shared understanding that actions one makes oneself are indeed like those made by conspecifics. Thus, what the self knows can be enriched by an understanding of the actions and aims of others, and vice versa. From this perspective, the origins of language reside in behaviors not originally related to communication. That is, this common understanding of action sequences may provide a “missing link” to language. In answering the question “What are the sources from outside the self that inform what the child knows?”, the basic idea is that negotiating a shared understanding of action grounds what individuals know in common, including foregrounding the body's part in detecting that the actions of the self are “like the other.” Given this footing, what then might the evolutionary path to language and the ontogeny of language in the child have in common? This perspective roots the source of the emergence of language in both as arising from perceiving and acting, leading to gesture, and eventually to speech. I report here on an ongoing research program designed to investigate how perceiving and acting inform achieving a consensus or common understanding of ongoing events hypothesized to underlie communicating with language.
Poor children experience greater psychological distress than do nonpoor children. However, evidence for the relationship between poverty and children's distress is limited by the use of measures of poverty at a single point in time, by a failure to examine race or ethnic differences, and by a lack of concern with explanations for poverty's effects. Using data from the 1986 Children of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth (NLSY) data set, we explored the relationships among current poverty, length of time spent in poverty, maternal parenting behaviors, and children's mental health. Persistent poverty significantly predicts children's internalizing symptoms above and beyond the effect of current poverty, whereas only current poverty predicts externalizing symptoms. Mother's weak emotional responsiveness and frequent use of physical punishment explain the effect of current poverty on mental health, but not the effect of persistent poverty. The relationships among poverty, parenting behaviors, and children's mental health do not vary by race/ethnicity. These findings support theoretical developments calling for greater emphasis on family processes in studies of children's poverty. They also argue for greater attention to trajectories of socioeconomic status in analyses of the effects of status on mental health.
The enormous popular interest in the field of child development makes it incumbent upon developmental scientists to convey with care the complexity of development lest oversimplified popular accounts gain credibility. Recent attempted models of development do include the range of variables and complexities that need to be accommodated in accounting for development. A model is presented here that incorporates many of the elements of recent models but elaborates on the role of experience in relation to the constitutional, cultural, economic, and social factors that contribute to advantages and disadvantages in children's development. The importance of accommodating data from prior theoretical perspectives and the importance of the contributions from neuroimaging studies are discussed as they are critical for successful theory building in the field of child development.
Classically, infants are thought to point for 2 main reasons: (a) They point impera-tively when they want an adult to do something for them (e. g., give them something; "Juice!"), and (b) they point declaratively when they want an adult to share attention with them to some interesting event or object ("Look!"). Here we demonstrate the ex-istence of another motive for infants'early pointing gestures: to inform another per-son of the location of an object that person is searching for. This informative motive for pointing suggests that from very early in ontogeny humans conceive of others as intentional agents with informational states and they have the motivation to provide such information communicatively.
Dynamic Skills Theory (DST) posits that skills within domains may promote or suppress other skills as they first develop, resulting in spurts of growth in one skill concurrently with regression in another. I test this premise by examining development of two preverbal representational skills: manual pointing and symbolic gestures. Pointing is a robust early communicative gesture, indicating infants' awareness of others' attention, but limited in ability to represent infants' conceptual repertoires as they grow beyond the immediate environment. Symbolic gestures are more specific but less flexible representational tools. Both skills predict language, yet no study has addressed the effects of these skills on each other. I observed the gesturing behavior of 10 infants over 8 months in a gesture-rich environment to test the effects of each skill on the other. Supporting DST, results show early pointing predicted earlier, but not more, symbolic gesturing, while symbolic gesturing did suppress pointing frequency.
This study explored the relation between parents' production of gestures and symbolic play during free play and children's production and comprehension of symbolic gestures. Thirty-one 16- to 22-month-olds and their parents participated in a free play session. Children also participated in a forced-choice novel gesture-learning task. Parents' pretend play with objects in hand was predictive of children's gesture production during play and gesture vocabulary according to parental report. No relationship was found between parent gesture and child performance on the forced-choice gesture-learning task, although children's performance was negatively correlated with their verbal vocabulary size. These data suggest a strong link between parental input and the children's use of gestures as symbols, although not a direct link from parent gesture to child gesture. The data also suggest that children's overall expectations that gestures can be symbols is unaffected by parental input, and highlight the possibility that children play a role in transforming the symbolic play behaviors that they observe into communicative signals.
The entire bodily gestural repertoire of four different infant groups was coded over the age period of 9 to 15 months. Two small samples of English-Canadian and Parisian-French infants were filmed every two weeks at home. A larger sample of Japanese infants was visited for 7 sessions and of Italian-Canadian infants for 4 sessions at 9 months and 15 months and again at 3 years. Language measures were collected for the last two groups. Increases in Comment gestures, particularly pointing, in Object exchange gestures, and in Agency gestures were found across almost all groups. Decreases in Reach-request and in Emotive gestures were also found for most groups. The increasing group of gestures was positively related to vocabulary acquisition, particularly to receptive vocabulary. Reach-request and Protest gestures at 15 months were negative related to different aspects of language at 3 years. The importance of examining the entire nonverbal communicative repertoire across cultures is discussed in terms of assessing the relationship of gestures to language acquisition. Changes in the gestural repertoire appear to be universal across infants of different cultures, at least those examined.
Presents a parent–infant interaction model which contends that infants participate in their own social development through the active establishment and maintenance of relations with caretakers. The establishment of social relations is achieved through behaviors such as crying, feeding, visual contact, and smiling, which capture the attention of adults. The maintenance of social relations depends on the meaningfulness ("readability") of the infant's behavior, the predictability of future behavior, and the infant's responsiveness to adult reactions. In the competent infant, establishment and maintenance skills are well-developed, leading to feelings of efficacy in both child and adult. Similarly, feelings of helplessness in both parties result from incompetent behavior and responses. Research support and implications of the model are discussed. (58 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This chapter describes the nature of individual differences in infant–caregiver attachment as J. Bowlby and M. Ainsworth conceptualized it in their theory of attachment. It reviews how individual differences are described and assessed in infancy, as well as the meaning of attachment classification as an assessment of relationship history. This chapter also discusses theoretical predictions regarding the meaning of individual differences in early attachment relationships for subsequent relationships. Bowlby's theoretical perspective on continuity is discussed, and empirical support for these theoretical claims is briefly reviewed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
A theoretical statement of the growth of language and thought from the organismic-developmental point of view. Harvard Book List (edited) 1971 #626 (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This study looks at whether there is a relationship between mother and infant gesture production. Specifically, it addresses the extent of articulation in the maternal gesture repertoire and how closely it supports the infant production of gestures. Eight Spanish mothers and their 1- and 2-year-old babies were studied during 1 year of observations. Maternal and child verbal production, gestures and actions were recorded at their homes on five occasions while performing daily routines. Results indicated that mother and child deictic gestures (pointing and instrumental) and representational gestures (symbolic and social) were very similar at each age group and did not decline across groups. Overall, deictic gestures were more frequent than representational gestures. Maternal adaptation to developmental changes is specific for gesturing but not for acting. Maternal and child speech were related positively to mother and child pointing and representational gestures, and negatively to mother and child instrumental gestures. Mother and child instrumental gestures were positively related to action production, after maternal and child speech was partialled out. Thus, language plays an important role for dyadic communicative activities (gesture–gesture relations) but not for dyadic motor activities (gesture–action relations). Finally, a comparison of the growth curves across sessions showed a closer correspondence for mother–child deictic gestures than for representational gestures. Overall, the results point to the existence of an articulated maternal gesture input that closely supports the child gesture production. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
This study examines relationships between organizing processes of affective communication in infancy and the development of symbolic competence. Thirty six mother—infant dyads were observed at 3 and 9 months, and 32 dyads were reassessed at 24 months. Mother's and infant affective states during face-to-face play at 3 and 9 months were coded in .25-second frames. The underlying structure of infant affect and the time-lag synchrony between mother and infant affective states were assessed with time-series analyses. In addition, interactions at 3 and 9 months were assessed for the global level of infant positive affect and maternal affect attunement. At 2 years, three dimensions of symbolic competence were evaluated: symbolic play, verbal IQ, and the child's use of internal states words. Infant affect regulation at 3 months, defined by the existence of a non-random, stochastic-cyclic organization of affective states, predicted all three domains of symbolic competence at 2 years. Maternal synchrony and attunement each had an independent contribution to the prediction of symbolic play and internal state talk. The microanalytic and global indices of affect each added meaningfully to the prediction of symbolic functioning. The organization of behavioral sequences into coherent affective configurations is discussed as a possible precursor to the general capacity to develop symbols. © 1997 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health
In this paper, elements of early mother—child interaction are related to later cognitive and linguistic outcomes in a sample of 53 high social risk mothers and their preschoolers. Mother—child interaction was observed longitudinally when the children were 13 and 20 months old. Multiple regression analyses were used to predict cognitive and linguistic outcomes at 3 and 5 years from measures of early mother—child interaction. The results indicated that the quality of early mother—child interaction was a significant predictor of preschool cognitive and linguistic outcomes. This was shown to be true regardless of the contribution of the mother's IQ.
A developmental model of the origins of maternal self-efficacy and its impact on maternal sensitivity was tested. Participants were 92 primiparous mothers and their 6-month-old infants. Mothers completed questionnaires about remembered care from their own parents and self-esteem prenatally, satisfaction with support, infant temperament, and maternal self-efficacy postnatally, and they participated in a laboratory observation with their infants. Maternal self-efficacy was predicted by remembered maternal care as mediated by global self-esteem. Infant soothability predicted maternal self-efficacy independently and in conjunction with distress to novelty and in conjunction with both distress to limits and satisfaction with support. Maternal self-efficacy interacted with distress to limits to predict maternal sensitivity during emotionally arousing activities. High infant distress was associated with less sensitive maternal behavior when maternal self-efficacy was moderately low and extremely high, but was positively associated with sensitive maternal behavior when self-efficacy was moderately high. Implications for future research are discussed.
Despite a variety of theoretical arguments to the contrary, sensitive caregiving makes an important contribution to the comprehension and emergence of speech. This research, informed by social ecological realism, documented that during the prelinguistic and one-word periods, caregivers routinely provided additional perceptual structure to their infants following communicative breakdowns. This sensitive adjusting of subsequent messages to infants contributed significantly to reaching a common understanding. Caregivers also modified their verbal messages in subsequent turns by making them more specific. In contrast, however, these elaborations did not contribute to achieving a practical consensus regarding ongoing events. These results suggest that the social ecological realist approach informing this research has important implications for theory, reviewing past empirical findings and future research. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Preverbal children are capable of explicitly communicating their own desires, emotions, and thoughts through infant signs (i.e., symbolic gestures) that they have invented or learned from caregivers. In this article, I describe seven lines of child development research and show how attending to infants' use of signs can complement and extend this knowledge of development for both scientists and caregivers. The areas of developmental research include object permanence, categorization, shared meaning, mental state understanding and absent reference, emotion knowledge, identity, and self-regulation. I present qualitative data on infants' signing gathered through videos of caregiver-child interaction, student caregivers' systematic participant observations, my own observations in an infant classroom, and volunteered sign stories from parents who use signs with their infants. I also present quotes from interviews with parents and caregivers of signing children to show how infants' signing affects adults' perceptions of and feelings toward children. With infant signs, infants reveal their thoughts, feelings, interests, and personalities in their own contexts through everyday interactions. By "listening" to infant signs, parents, practitioners, and scientists gain insight into individual infants and respect for the often underestimated capacities of preverbal children.
This article introduces a new method to assess mothers' insightfulness regarding their children's inner world. Maternal insightfulness involves the capacity to see things from the child's point of view, and is based on insight into the child's motives, a complex view of the child, and openness to new information about the child. Insightfulness is seen as the capacity underlying positive parenting and providing the context for secure child–parent attachment. In the assessment of insightfulness mothers view video segments of their interactions with their children and are subsequently interviewed regarding their children's and their own thoughts and feelings during the segments. This article describes how the maternal interviews are coded and provides vignettes of both insightful and noninsightful mothers. Empirical findings supporting the validity of the insightfulness assessment are reviewed, and the implications for children's development are discussed. ©2002 Michigan Association for Infant Mental Health.
Little is known about variables that may contribute to individual differences in infant joint attention, or the coordination of visual attention with a social partner. Therefore, this study examined the contributions of caregiver behavior and temperament to in-fant joint attention development between 9 and 12 months. Data were collected from 57 infants using a caregiver–infant paradigm, an infant–tester paradigm, and a parent report of infant temperament. Nine-month measures of caregiver scaffolding and in-INFANCY, 4(4), 603–616 Copyright © 2003, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.
Researchers have hypothesized in the past that children learning sign languages develop signs at an earlier age than is typically expected for vocal words. This assumption, however, has recently been questioned on the grounds that researchers have not always guaranteed that words and gestures are being used in a comparable fashion. The present study was designed to shed light on this controversy by comparing the onset of symbolic use of signs and words in a group of 22 hearing children exposed to symbolic gestures from 11 months onward. Bimonthly interviews emphasizing contexts of use of gestures and vocal words indicated a smaller modality difference than early research had predicted, thus providing support for the hypothesis that strides in cognitive abilities such as memory, categorization, and symbolization underlie this milestone in both modalities. At the same time, however, the data also indicated that the small difference in onset time was reliable, thus providing support for the notion that the gestural modality is, in fact, easier for many infants to master once the requisite cognitive skills are in place.
Numerous studies have indicated that when adults interact with very young children, they modify their speech in a consistent fashion. Although the characteristics of these modifications have been well documented, relatively little is known about the frequency and types of gestures that accompany adults' speech to young children. The present study was designed to provide data on maternal use of gesture during mother-toddler interactions and to assess whether maternal use of gestures changes as children's speech becomes progressively more complex. Twelve upper-middle-class Italian mother-child dyads were videotaped in their homes for 45 min when children were 16 and 20 months of age. Results indicated that mothers made use of a “gestural motherese” characterized by the relatively infrequent use of concrete gestures redundant with and reinforcing the message conveyed in speech. In addition, individual differences in maternal gesture and speech production were highly stable over time despite substantial changes in children's use of gesture and speech, and there was some evidence for positive relations between maternal gesture production and children's verbal and gestural production and vocabulary size within and across observations. Findings are discussed in terms of the functions that maternal gesture may serve for young language learners.
Dynamic skill theory was utilized to explain the multiple mechanisms and mediating processes influencing development of self-regulatory and language skills in children at 14, 24, and 36 months of age. Relations were found between family risks, parenting-related stresses, and parent-child interactions that contribute either independently or through mediation to the child's acquisition of self-regulatory skills even when accounting for the influence of language development. Variation in impacts between control and Early Head Start (EHS) intervention samples was compared to explore the sequence of developmental mechanisms over time. Findings indicate that EHS protects parenting, child language, and self-regulatory development from the effects of demographic risks and parenting stress, and thus supports parents to raise healthy children.
Social skills and symbol skills are positively associated in middle childhood, but the relation between these domains is less clear in newly verbal toddlers. Vygotsky (1934/1986) proposed that symbols are both tools for interaction and mental tools for thought. Do symbols help even very young children build skills for interacting with and conceptualizing the social world? Longitudinal data from 108 children and mothers were collected when children were 14, 24, and 36 months. Children's gestures and words during mother-child interactions were used as symbol skill indicators to predict children's abilities to engage others and the number of social-emotional concepts children portray during play. In a series of growth models, words had a stronger effect on engagement skills while early gesture use predicted later development of social-emotional concepts. Therefore, even in early development, symbols serve as both communication tools and mental tools to construct understanding of the social-emotional world.
At around 1 year of age, human infants display a number of new behaviors that seem to indicate a newly emerging understanding of other persons as intentional beings whose attention to outside objects may be shared, followed into, and directed in various ways. These behaviors have mostly been studied separately. In the current study, we investigated the most important of these behaviors together as they emerged in a single group of 24 infants between 9 and 15 months of age. At each of seven monthly visits, we measured joint attentional engagement, gaze and point following, imitation of two different kinds of actions on objects, imperative and declarative gestures, and comprehension and production of language. We also measured several nonsocial-cognitive skills as a point of comparison. We report two studies. The focus of the first study was the initial emergence of infants' social-cognitive skills and how these skills are related to one another developmentally. We found a reliable pattern of emergence: Infants progressed from sharing to following to directing others' attention and behavior. The nonsocial skills did not emerge predictably in this developmental sequence. Furthermore, correlational analyses showed that the ages of emergence of all pairs of the social-cognitive skills or their components were interrelated. The focus of the second study was the social interaction of infants and their mothers, especially with regard to their skills of joint attentional engagement (including mothers' use of language to follow into or direct infants' attention) and how these skills related to infants' early communicative competence. Our measures of communicative competence included not only language production, as in previous studies, but also language comprehension and gesture production. It was found that two measures-the amount of time infants spent in joint engagement with their mothers and the degree to which mothers used language that followed into their infant's focus of attention-predicted infants' earliest skills of gestural and linguistic communication. Results of the two studies are discussed in terms of their implications for theories of social-cognitive development, for theories of language development, and for theories of the process by means of which human children become fully participating members of the cultural activities and processes into which they are born.
Infants' effects on adults are a little studied but important aspect of development. What do infants do that increases caregiver responsiveness in childcare environments? Infants' communicative behaviors (i.e. smiling, crying) affect mothers' responsiveness; and preschool children's language abilities affect teachers' responses in the classroom setting. However, the effects of infants' intentional communications on either parents' or non-parental caregivers' responsiveness have not been examined. Using longitudinal video data from an infant classroom where infant signing was used along with conventional gestures (i.e. pointing), this study examines whether infants' use of gestures and signs elicited greater responsiveness from caregivers during daily interactions. Controlling child age and individual child effects, infants' gestures and signs used specifically to respond to caregivers elicited more responsiveness from caregivers during routine interactions. Understanding the effects of infants' behaviors on caregivers is critical for helping caregivers understand and improve their own behavior towards children in their care.
One of the defining features of human language is displacement, the ability to make reference to absent entities. Here we show that prelinguistic, 12-month-old infants already can use a nonverbal pointing gesture to make reference to absent entities. We also show that chimpanzees-who can point for things they want humans to give them-do not point to refer to absent entities in the same way. These results demonstrate that the ability to communicate about absent but mutually known entities depends not on language, but rather on deeper social-cognitive skills that make acts of linguistic reference possible in the first place. These nonlinguistic skills for displaced reference emerged apparently only after humans' divergence from great apes some 6 million years ago.
The effects of an intentional infant sign language program on mother-infant interactions were studied. Design was quasi-experimental, longitudinal, descriptive and comparative. The sample was composed of 14 mother-infant dyads, with the infants being between 5 and 9 months at the beginning of the study. The participants were middle or upper-middle socio-economic status. The interactions were evaluated through observations of free play and analyzed using a Grid to analyze early interactions. The frequency and duration of synchronic interactions were compared across experimental and control groups at 12-14 and 18-20 months of age using non-parametric Mann-Whitney tests. The results suggested significant differences between groups on visual and tactile synchronic interactions, and a tendency for vocal interactions, in the direction of higher frequencies in the experimental group.
The gestures children produce predict the early stages of spoken language development. Here we ask whether gesture is a global predictor of language learning, or whether particular gestures predict particular language outcomes. We observed 52 children interacting with their caregivers at home, and found that gesture use at 18 months selectively predicted lexical versus syntactic skills at 42 months, even with early child speech controlled. Specifically, number of different meanings conveyed in gesture at 18 months predicted vocabulary at 42 months, but number of gesture+speech combinations did not. In contrast, number of gesture+speech combinations, particularly those conveying sentence-like ideas, produced at 18 months predicted sentence complexity at 42 months, but meanings conveyed in gesture did not. We can thus predict particular milestones in vocabulary and sentence complexity at age by watching how children move their hands two years earlier.