Chapter 5: Infancy

Ability to notice fine phonetic detail not limited to one’s native language

In the first year, infants are able to distinguish among the sounds of the world’s languages

◦    Adults do not possess this ability

As infants develop and become attuned to the sounds they hear on a regular basis, their ability to distinguish non-native phonemic contrasts diminishes

• the process by which infants start to focus more on perceptual differences that are relevant to them
•     differences between two native phonemes

• focus less on perceptual differences that are not relevant to them or that they encounter less often
•     difference btw nonnative phonemes

• permissible combination of phonemes in one's native language
•     as infants hear theri native language more and more, they also develop the ability to recognize phonotactic regularities 
•         ie /ps/ and /h/ which sounds precede one another

able to distinguish by 9 months

• Ability to detect phonotactic regularities in
• one’s language helps infants segment words from continuous speech
•    ie when we are older, we are not able to segment words from a sentence when a foreign language speaker speaks

• the ability to categorize input in ways that highlight or delineate differences in meaning
•     infants develop it over their first year as they are exposed to language
•     begin by categorizing incoming sounds into speech and non speech sounds
•         voiced and voiceless /d/ and /t/

we are able to distinguish btw sounds in different categories (/p/ and /b/), but without special training, we are not able to distinguish btw variations of sounds within the same category (the first and last /p/ sounds in pup, aspirated and unaspirated

variations of sounds in the same category

• interval btw the release of a stop consonant (b, p, t, d) and the onset of vocal cord vibrations
•     used to distinguish btw sounds in different categories

• can distinguish btw purposeful and accidental actions
•     focus on the intentions underlying actions rather than the physical details of the action
•     by 12 months understand rational actions as means to a goal even when they are not abler to view the entire context in which an action takes place

awareness of movement and their understanding of goals is important precursor for language development

• on the basis of similar-appearing features including:
•     size, shape, color, texture
•     so, infant says to self, self, this color is the same as that color.

• at 3 months, distinguish btw cats and dogs
• at 4 months, distinguish btw animals and furniture

• special type of babble that contains the melodic patterns of an infants native language
•     not true words because not referential and don't convey meaning

the hand movements and gestures of the parents

• infant directed speech
• joint reference and attention
• rituals of infancy
• caregiver responsiveness

• importance of the environment in language development
• linguistic input adults provide
• social interactions that infants engage in with others

• IDS
• Motherese, baby talk, and child directed speech

• paralinguistic characteristics: describe the manner of speech outside of the linguistic info
•     high overall pitch, exaggerated pitch contours, slower tempo

syntactic characteristics: smaller mean length of utterance, few subordinate clauses, more content words, fewer function words

discourse features: greater use of repetition, more questions than adult directed speech

• infants prefer ids to ads because attracts infants attention
• basically speaking like and as child as opposed to adult speaking as an adult
•     -are you hungry?
•     -would you like something to eat

exaggerated vowels, pauses, exaggerate the end of utterances where infants are more likely to remember them, rhythm

• Vygotsky:
• language development is a dynamic process that occurs within children’s ZPD as
• they engage with more advanced peers and adults
•   
• adults view infants’ interactions
• as meaningful through the lens of their own culture

• Adults support infants’ expressions
• in each of the phases until infants can independently master components of
• social exchange

• emergence to social partners
• emergence and coordination of joint attention
• transition to language

• birth to 6 months
• infants develop patterns of attending to social partners
•  infants value and participate in interpersonal interactions, learning how to maintain attention and be "organized" with sustained periods of engagement
• interest in looking at faces especially parents
• caregiver responsiveness is important

• 6 months to a year
• increasing interest in looking at and MANIPULATING the objects around them, able to grasp, bat away

• begin to navigate attention btw an object of interest and another person
•     this signals the emergence of joint attention

• joint attention: simultaneous engagements of two or more individuals in mental focus on a single external object of focus
•     symbolizes a critical avenue for early communication development, fosters important communicative exchanges
•     critical because begins nonverbal communication

• techniques such as speaking with an animated voice or showing an infant novel objects
•     maintaining infants attention related to an infants abiltiy to engage in sustained attention at 18 months
•     sustained attention: looking at objects for longer amount of time 
•     redirecting infants attention negatively related to infants ability to engage in sustained attention

so support inferences about a speaker's referential intentions infants use

• line of regard
• gestures
• voice direction
• body posture

the recognition of when one shares a mental focus on some external object or action with another person, aware that mother and infant are attending to the same thing or not

• the infants attempts to deliberately communicate with others
•     when infants have intersubjective awareness, they begin to interpret other's referential actions as intentional and begin to use their own actions referentially
•     starts with sounds and then go to babbling

• infant alternates eye gaze btw an object and a communicative partner 
• infant uses ritualized gestures, such as pointing
• infant persists toward goals by repeating or modifying their gestures when communicative attempts fail

requests to adults to retrieve objects, around 10 months, point at things they want, COMES FIRST

• social process btw an infant and an adult, don't necessarily want it but indicate that it is there, comes several months after imperative pointing
•     LINKED TO INFANTS UNDERSTANDING OF OTHERS INTENTIONS

• describes the language that infants comprehend
•     by 1, they comprehend about 80 words

• language that infants produce spontaneously, without imitating another's verbalizations
•     by 1, they expressively produce about 10 words
•     usually more advanced than expressive vocab
•     will be similar in range to the population if population is homogenous to the child

receptive language development outpaces expressive (comprehension before action)

requires only that we retrieve words from our lexicon, whereas language production requires that we retrieve words and apply proper pronunciation as we utter them

• how do we gauge rate changes:
•     examining test results like norm referenced measures of lang measuring age development
•     macarthur-bates comm development inventory

• comprehension at 1=15-150 words
• reception at 16 moths of age= 80-300 words
• ses is a factor

ses and quantity of talk parents provide to children

• checklist format, whereby clinicians and parents can check whether or not the infant exhibits each of the behaviors in question
•  parent may think they understand what they are doing but are not actually doing it correctly

• parents report directly on their infants development
•     quick way to gauge their progress
•     reliable and valid measure of language ability when compared to other direct assessments
•     since they spend more time with their children, they are best capable in reporting unique or emerging behaviors