Is Early Speech Situational? The Relation of Early Utterances to the Context (original) (raw)
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This study focuses on pragmatic characteristics of infant-directed speech and pragmatic fine tuning during the first 18 months of life. The subjects of the study were a mother-child dyad involved in a longitudinal/observational study in a familial context. Audiovisual recordings were transcribed according to the conventions of the Child Language Data Exchange System (MacWhinney, 2000; MacWhinney & Snow, 1990). The Ninio and Wheeler's (1988) system for coding communicative intentions was adapted. The results of this research show that most of the communicative exchanges identified at 14, 20 and 32 months by Snow, Pan, Imbens-Bailey, and Herman (1996) appear in mother-child interaction from the beginning, while other communicative interchanges appear later. With respect to speech acts, the results highlight, from an early age, the general tendencies discussed by Snow et al. and some novelties. Interestingly, changes in some pragmatic measures were identified around 8 months of age, and the appearance of new communicative interchanges also took place around this age. These changes are interpreted as maternal adjustments to the child's communicative competence.
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This thesis focused on two studies designed to investigate the influence of communicative context on parent-child interactions. Study 1 looked at the effects of different communication intervention systems (Baby Sign (BS), Enhanced Verbal (EV), and Enhanced Nonverbal (ENV) techniques) on language acquisition, nonverbal behaviours, and socio-emotional development. Study 2 measured the effects of chronic otitis media with effusion (OME) on interactions between parent and child. The investigative platform for both studies was to ascertain how the environment in which parent-infant interactions occur may be affected positively by the enhancement of communication and/or negatively by constitutional conditions (such as OME). Study 1 compared BS to other types of intervention. Typically-developing infants were recruited between the ages of 9-11 months and followed longitudinally for 20 months. BS was chosen due to its claims of advancement in IQ rates, symbolic development, complex languag...
Infancy, 2003
The extent to which mothers and fathers agree on what they identify as their infant's communicative acts was investigated. Nineteen infants (6 at 6 months, 7 at 9 months, and 6 at 12 months) and their parents participated. A randomization procedure controlled for the frequencies and durations of the communicative acts identified by the parents, and the procedure produced a distribution of 10,000 "chance" agreement values for each parent pair with which their observed level of agreement was compared. The results indicated that, generally, parents could identify their infant's communicative acts consistently, and that observed levels of agreement between parents were significantly higher than would be expected by chance. Differences between mothers and fathers on their identification of communicative acts are considered in terms of the emergence of the infant's intention to communicate.
Communication in early infancy: Three common assumptions examined and found inadequate.
Human Development, 1983
Three taken-for-granted assumptions concerning the nature of communicative interaction between infants and adults are described. Their presence is demonstrated in three differently oriented theories ofearly interaction. The assumptions -that interaction is instrumentally oriented; that meaning is obvious and unitary; that change has an external sourceare then put to empirical test, using narrative records from video-recordings made during a longitudinal study ofan infant girl and her mother. The outline ofa more adequate account of communicative exchanges is proposed.
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Journal of Child Language, 2011
In the introduction to their book on early communication and language, Nadel and Camaioni (1993) employed the metaphor of an orchestra to account for the rich repertoire of communicative behaviors that toddlers utilize concurrently with the emergence of speech. In most previous studies of prelinguistic communication, specific communicative behaviors have been carefully portrayed in longitudinal or cross-sectional studies on relatively small sized samples.
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Early Sociopersonality in Child Discourse
The paper seeks to focus on certain issues emerging from an early sociopersonality in child discourse that has dealt with an exploratory inquiry into the development of an early sociopersonality in child discourse. The study is largely based on the data pooled from the investigator's own daughter at the 3 + span of development. A major motivation for this comes from the fact that studies of child intention have brought into focus such a domain of the child's communication with her mother. Different situations with a strong potential for communication, presented to the child in the natural home environment through different episodes. The below topics were taken into consideration for a period of six months, and all the acts were recorded by a camcorder in a very friendly environment, which came out to be three hours involving nine different episodes all covered in home environment, collected in each episode consisting of approximately 15 -20 minutes. l. Drawing. 2. Play situations involving some kinds of puzzles etc. 3. Playing with dolls. 4. Reading storybooks, etc.
Developmental Changes in Early Communicative Competence
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A proposed model of communicative behavior suggests a series of seven progressively more complex levels of communicative competence: (1) behavior state; (2) recognitory; (3) contingency; (4) instrumental; (5) triadic; (6) verbal-contextual; and (7) verbal-decontextual. Tables define these levels in detail and list their characteristics. Each level is exemplified by particular engagement and termination behaviors. In a study designed to determine whether children follow the proposed model, a total of 68 children between 1 day and 30 months of age were observed while playing with their mothers. Interactions were coded for children's communicative behaviors, and performance criteria were established for mastery of each level of communicative competence. Also noted were the age at which a behavior from a particular level first appeared; the basal age, at which at least one child met the criteria for mastery of a behavior; and the ceiling age, at which all children exhibited mastery of the level. Results indicated that, beginning with level 3, the first appearance of a behavior from a level was concurrent with the basal age for the preceding level. Results supported the proposed model. Estimated age ranges fo-each level are given. A list of 55 references is provided. Appendixes include definitions of specific termination and engagement behaviors in each of the levels and a copy of the observation coding form. (SC)