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Infants’ intentionally communicative vocalizations elicit responses from caregivers and are the best predictors of the transition to language : a longitudinal investigation of infants’ vocalizations, gestures and word production
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Donnellan, Ed, Bannard, Colin, McGillion, Michelle L., Slocombe, Katie E. and Matthews, Danielle (2020) Infants’ intentionally communicative vocalizations elicit responses from caregivers and are the best predictors of the transition to language : a longitudinal investigation of infants’ vocalizations, gestures and word production. Developmental Science, 23 (1). e12843. doi:10.1111/desc.12843 ISSN 1363-755x.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12843
Abstract
What aspects of infants’ prelinguistic communication are most valuable for learning to speak, and why? We test whether early vocalizations and gestures drive the transition to word use because, in addition to indicating motoric readiness, they (a) are early instances of intentional communication and (b) elicit verbal responses from caregivers. In study 1, 11 month olds (N = 134) were observed to coordinate vocalizations and gestures with gaze to their caregiver's face at above chance rates, indicating that they are plausibly intentionally communicative. Study 2 tested whether those infant communicative acts that were gaze‐coordinated best predicted later expressive vocabulary. We report a novel procedure for predicting vocabulary via multi‐model inference over a comprehensive set of infant behaviours produced at 11 and 12 months (n = 58). This makes it possible to establish the relative predictive value of different behaviours that are hierarchically organized by level of granularity. Gaze‐coordinated vocalizations were the most valuable predictors of expressive vocabulary size up to 24 months. Study 3 established that caregivers were more likely to respond to gaze‐coordinated behaviours. Moreover, the dyadic combination of infant gaze‐coordinated vocalization and caregiver response was by far the best predictor of later vocabulary size. We conclude that practice with prelinguistic intentional communication facilitates the leap to symbol use. Learning is optimized when caregivers respond to intentional vocalizations with appropriate language.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||||||
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Subjects: | B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology P Language and Literature > P Philology. Linguistics |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine > Science > Psychology | ||||||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Interpersonal communication in infants, Speech perception in infants, Social interaction in infants, Cognition in infants, Language acquisition | ||||||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Developmental Science | ||||||||||||
Publisher: | Blackwell | ||||||||||||
ISSN: | 1363-755x | ||||||||||||
Official Date: | January 2020 | ||||||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 23 | ||||||||||||
Number: | 1 | ||||||||||||
Article Number: | e12843 | ||||||||||||
DOI: | 10.1111/desc.12843 | ||||||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||||||
Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Donnellan, E, Bannard, C, McGillion, ML, Slocombe, KE, Matthews, D. Infants’ intentionally communicative vocalizations elicit responses from caregivers and are the best predictors of the transition to language: A longitudinal investigation of infants’ vocalizations, gestures and word production. Dev Sci. 2019;e12843. https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12843, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/desc.12843. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. | ||||||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 3 July 2019 | ||||||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 2 May 2020 | ||||||||||||
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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