The Value of Vocalizing: 10‐Month‐Olds' Vocal Usage Relates to Language Outcomes at 15 Months

The interaction between infant's communicative competence and responsiveness of caregivers facilitates the transition from prelinguistic to linguistic communication. It is thus important to know how infants' communicative behavior changes in relation to different caregiver responses; furthermore, how infants' modification of communicative behavior relates to language outcomes. We investigated 39 10‐month‐old infants' communication as a function of mothers' attention and responses and the relationship to language outcomes at 15 months. We elicited infants' communicative behavior in three conditions: (1) joint attention: Mothers were visually attending and responding to infants' attention and interest; (2) available: Mothers were visually attending to infants, but not responding contingently to infants' attention and interest; (3) unavailable: Mothers were not attending to infants nor responding to them. Infants vocalized more when mothers attended and responded to them (conditions 1 and 2) than when mothers did not (condition 3), but infants' gesture and gesture‐vocal production did not differ across conditions. Furthermore, infants' production of a higher proportion of vocalizations in the unavailable condition relative to the joint attention condition correlated with, and predicted, infants' language scores at 15 months. Thus, infants who appear to be aware of the social effects of vocalizations may learn words better.     

Mothers' Verbal and Nonverbal Strategies in Relation to Infants' Object‐Directed Actions in Real Time and Across the First Three Years in Ethnically Diverse Families

We examined maternal behavioral strategies in relation to infants' object‐directed actions in real time and over developmental time in 206 mother–infant dyads from African American, Dominican immigrant, and Mexican immigrant backgrounds. Mothers were asked to share a set of beads and strings with their infants when children were 14, 24, and 36 months. We coded three types of maternal strategies—eliciting attention, instructive assistance, and encouragement—which could be expressed verbally (e.g., “look”, “turn it”, “good job!”) or physically (i.e., through gestures, hands‐on guidance, or transfer of objects). We also coded infants' unassisted bead‐stringing. Across ethnic groups and ages, mothers' hands‐on guidance and object transfer increased the likelihood that infants would follow with unassisted bead‐stringing during real‐time interaction. Over developmental time, mothers modified their strategies: They displayed fewer attention‐getting strategies and more encouragement across infant ages, and peaked in their provision of instructive assistance when infants were 24 months. Additionally, Mexican mothers displayed more nonverbal strategies (e.g., gestures, hands‐on guidance) than did African American and/or Dominican mothers, who displayed more verbal strategies (e.g., attention‐getting and encouraging language). Developmental and real‐time patterns in mother–infant object‐related interactions generalize across ethnicities, although mothers' emphases on specific strategies are culture specific.     

Depressed and Well Mothers' Emotion Interpretation Accuracy and the Quality of Mother—Infant Interaction

The inadequate parenting associated with mothers' depression may be related to mothers' problems in interpreting infants' emotional expressions. The relations between depressed and well mothers' accuracy at interpreting babies' facial expressions and the quality of the mothers' interactions with their infants were examined. In partial support of our hypotheses, depressed mothers' level of depressive symptoms was associated with less accuracy, especially regarding positive emotions. Contrary to expectations, depressed mothers did not differ from well mothers in terms of their emotion accuracy. Furthermore, depressed mothers' accuracy at interpreting infants' emotions was not significantly related to the quality of their interaction with their infants; in contrast, well mothers' accuracy for infants' negative emotions was associated with better interaction quality. These findings provide new information about depressed mothers' emotional interpretations and their parenting. The different pattern of findings for depressed and well mothers suggests that other mediating factors are important, which are discussed.     

Sensitivity to Social Contingency and Positive Emotion in 2‐Month‐Olds

This study was aimed at sorting out conflicting results in the literature concerning 2‐month‐olds' sensitivity to interpersonal contingency, and investigated the potential role of infants' positive emotion in contingency detection. Infants were randomly assigned to an experimental group (EG) that was presented an uninterrupted live–replay–live sequence of three 30‐sec episodes of their mothers' communicative behavior using a double video TV paradigm, or to a control group (CG) that was presented an uninterrupted 90 sec of contingent maternal interactions. Infants of the EG grimaced more than infants of the CG only during the 2nd period of social exchange (replay vs. 2nd live period), but there was an increase of grimacing and a reduction in gazing during the 3rd period of televised interactions in infants of the CG. Each group was split into 2 subgroups a posteriori according to the presence or absence of smiling during the 1st contingent episode. Smiling infants of the EG reacted more negatively during the 2nd interaction period compared to other subgroups. These findings support the view that sensitivity, not fatigue or loss of interest to maternal stimulation, accounts for 2‐month‐olds' expressive changes during noncontingent maternal interactions; fatigue or loss of interest better explains the decline in attention and the increase of negative expressiveness during the last period of contingent interaction. The findings also suggest that the emotional climate of dyadic exchanges could be a contributing factor to infants' ability to detect the relations between their own actions and those of their social partners.     

Fine‐Grained Analysis of Motionese: Eye Gaze,Object Exchanges,and Action Units in Infant‐Versus Adult‐Directed Action

Mothers modify their actions when demonstrating objects to infants versus adults. Such modifications have been called infant‐directed action (IDA) or motionese (Brand, Baldwin, & Ashburn, 2002). We investigated the IDA features of interactiveness and simplification by quantifying eye gaze, object exchanges, and action units enacted between exchanges in 42 mothers' demonstrations of novel objects to infants (6–8 months or 11–13 months) or adults. We found more eye gaze, more object exchanges, and fewer action types per turn in demonstrations to infants relative to adults. Unlike prior research using global measurements, we detected differences in behavior directed at infants of different ages: Shorter, more frequent gazes and more exchanges characterized demonstrations to older versus younger infants. These findings indicate the fruitfulness of fine‐grained analysis of IDA, and further clarify how adults may support infants' processing of human motion.     

Infants' Response to Maternal Mirroring in the Still Face and Replay Tasks

Infants' response to maternal mirroring was investigated in 4‐month‐old infants. Mother–infant dyads participated in the still face and replay tasks. Infants were grouped by those whose mothers did and did not mirror their behavior in the interactive phases of the tasks. In the still face task, infants with maternal mirroring showed more attention, smiling, and positive vocalizations across the phases, although both groups of infants demonstrated the still‐face effect with attention and smiling. Infants' social bidding to the mother during the still‐face phase correlated with mothers' mirroring behavior. In the replay task, infants with maternal mirroring demonstrated carryover effects with smiling; infants without maternal mirroring showed no awareness of change in their mothers' behavior. In both the still face and replay tasks, infants with maternal mirroring were more engaged with their mothers. Results suggest that maternal mirroring of infants' behavior affects infants' detection of, and response to, reciprocal interaction.     

The context of infants' giving gestures in mother-infant dyads: Typical giving gestures and those contingent on exploration and play

This study aimed to focus on a niche that has not yet been investigated in infants' gesture studies that is the effect of the prior context of one specific gestural behavior (gives) on maternal behavior. For this purpose, we recruited 23 infants at 11 and 13 months of age yielded 246 giving gesture bouts that were performed in three contexts: typical when the object was offered immediately, contingent on exploration, and contingent on play. The analysis revealed that maternal responses to infants' giving gestures varied and were affected by their age and gesture context. Hence, mothers amended their responses according to the background that generated each gesture. The number of verbal responses to infants' giving gestures decreased as the infants aged, whereas the number of pretense responses increased. For infants aged 11 months, mothers generally provided motor responses to typical gestures. However, for infants aged 13 months, this trend declined and was replaced by a strong positive correlation between giving gestures contingent on play and verbal responses. We concluded that the type of activity with objects prior to employing giving gestures could enhance infants' symbolic skills because caregivers monitor the contingent act that yields the gesture that shapes their response.     

Attention to Maternal Multimodal Naming by 6‐ to 8‐Month‐Old Infants and Learning of Word–Object Relations

We examined whether mothers' use of temporal synchrony between spoken words and moving objects, and infants' attention to object naming, predict infants' learning of word–object relations. Following 5 min of free play, 24 mothers taught their 6‐ to 8‐month‐olds the names of 2 toy objects, Gow and Chi, during a 3‐min play episode. Infants were then tested for their word mapping. The videotaped episodes were coded for mothers' object naming and infants' attention to different naming types. Results indicated that mothers' use of temporal synchrony and infants' attention during play covaried with infants' word‐mapping ability. Specifically, infants who switched eye gaze from mother to object most frequently during naming learned the word–object relations. The findings suggest that maternal naming and infants' word‐mapping abilities are bidirectionally related. Variability in infants' attention to maternal multimodal naming explains the variability in early lexical‐mapping development.     

Maternal Disrupted Communication During Face‐to‐Face Interaction at 4 months: Relation to Maternal and Infant Cortisol Among at‐Risk Families

The study evaluated the association between maternal disrupted communication and the reactivity and regulation of the psychobiology of the stress response in infancy. Mothers and infants were recruited via the National Health Service from the 20% most economically impoverished data zones in a suburban region of Scotland. Mothers (N = 63; M age = 25.9) and their 4‐month‐old infants (35 boys, 28 girls) were videotaped interacting for 8 min, including a still‐face procedure as a stress inducer and a 5‐min coded recovery period. Saliva samples were collected from the dyads prior to, during, and after the still‐face procedure and later assayed for cortisol. Level of disruption in maternal communication with the infant was coded from the 5‐min videotaped interaction during the recovery period which followed the still‐face procedure. Severely disrupted maternal communication was associated with lower levels of maternal cortisol and a greater divergence between mothers' and infants' cortisol levels. Results point to low maternal cortisol as a possible mechanism contributing to the mother's difficulty in sensitively attuning to her infant's cues, which in turn has implications for the infant's reactivity to and recovery from a mild stressor in early infancy.     

Maternal Talk About Mental States and the Emergence of Joint Visual Attention

Twenty‐four infants were tested monthly for gaze and point following between 9 and 15 months of age and mother‐infant free play sessions were also conducted at 9, 12, and 15 months (Carpenter, Nagell, & Tomasello, 1998). Using this data set, this study explored relations between maternal talk about mental states during mothers' free play with their infants and the emergence of joint visual attention in infants. Contrary to hypothesis, mothers' comments about their infants' perceptual states significantly declined after their infants began to engage in joint visual attention. Comments about other mental states did not change relative to acquisition of joint visual attention skill. We speculate that after infants begin to reliably follow gaze and points, mothers may switch the focus of their conversation from their infants' visual behavior and experiences to the object of their mutual attention.     

Maternal Responsiveness and the Development of Directed Vocalizing in Social Interactions

For effective communication, infants must develop the phonology of sounds and the ability to use vocalizations in social interactions. Few studies have examined the development of the pragmatic use of prelinguistic vocalizations, possibly because gestures are considered hallmarks of early pragmatic skill. The current study investigated infant vocal production and maternal responsiveness to examine the relationship between infant and maternal behavior in the development of infants' vocal communication. Specifically, we asked whether maternal responses to vocalizations could influence the development of prelinguistic vocal usage, as has been documented in recent experimental studies exploring the relation between maternal responses and phonological development. Twelve mother–infant dyads participated over a six‐month period (between 8 and 14 months of age). Mothers completed the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory when infants were 15 months old. Maternal sensitive responses to infant vocalizations in the previous months predicted infants' mother‐directed vocalizations in the following months, rather than overall response rate. Furthermore, mothers' sensitive responding to mother‐directed vocalizations was correlated with an increase in developmentally advanced, consonant–vowel vocalizations and some language measures. This is the first study to document a social shaping mechanism influencing developmental change in pragmatic usage of vocalizations in addition to identifying the specific behaviors underlying development.     

Marital Harmony and Conflict: Links to Infants' Emotional Regulation and Cardiac Vagal Tone

This study is an investigation of linkages between marital quality (conflict and harmony) and infants' emotional and physiological regulation: It was hypothesized that infants exposed to greater levels of marital conflict would demonstrate lower levels of emotional and physiological regulation. Fifty‐six low‐risk infants and their mothers attended a laboratory session when infants were 6 months of age. A baseline EKG was gathered to assess infants' cardiac vagal tone and the Bayley Scales of Infant Development and Behavior Rating Scales were administered. Mothers also completed Braiker and Kelley's (1979) marital quality questionnaire. Consistent with past research with preschoolers, marital conflict was found to be linked to lower levels of emotion regulation in infants. However, unlike past research (Gottman & Katz, 1989), results indicated that marital conflict was associated with lower levels of cardiac vagal tone in infants as opposed to higher levels of vagal tone among preschoolers. These findings are explained in terms of a possible developmental alteration in the link between marital conflict and vagal tone from early infancy to later childhood. Findings also have important implications for understanding the potential impact of the early marital relational context for infants emerging regulatory abilities.     

Infant Affect During Parent—Infant Interaction at 3 and 6 Months: Differences Between Mothers and Fathers and Influence of Parent History of Depression

Fifty families participated in mother‐infant and father‐infant still‐face interaction at infant ages 3 and 6 months as part of a study of affect in early parent‐infant relationships. Infants' positive and negative affect and parents' positive affect and physical play were coded from videotapes. Consistent with previous research, during the normal condition, mothers displayed more positive affect than did fathers, and fathers were more likely than mothers to display physical play. Infants were more positive with mothers than with fathers. Parents' positive affect but not parent gender predicted infants' positive affect at 6 months. During the still‐face condition, infants of parents with a lifetime history of depression were more likely to display negative affect and less likely to display positive affect than infants with no such parent history. Infants' affect was unrelated to parents' current level of depressive symptoms, which indicates the value of considering family history of psychopathology when examining individual differences in infants' affect.     

Is a Bird an Apple? The Effect of Speaker Labeling Accuracy on Infants' Word Learning,Imitation, and Helping Behaviors

This study examined infants' sensitivity to a speaker's verbal accuracy and whether the reliability of the speaker had an effect on their selective trust. Forty‐nine 18‐month‐old infants were exposed to a speaker who either accurately or inaccurately labeled familiar objects. Subsequently, the speaker administered a series of tasks in which infants had an opportunity to: learn a novel word, imitate the speaker's “irrational” actions, and help the speaker obtain an out‐of‐reach object. In contrast to infants in the accurate (reliable) condition, those in the inaccurate (unreliable) condition performed more poorly on a word‐learning task and were less likely to imitate. All infants demonstrated high rates of instrumental helping behavior. These results are the first to demonstrate that infants as young as 18 months of age cannot only detect a speaker's verbal inaccuracy but also use this information to attenuate their word recognition and learning of novel actions.     

Patterns of positivity: Positive affect trajectories among infants of mothers with a history of depression

This study examined positive affect (PA) trajectories over the first year of life among infants of mothers with a history of depression (N = 191) as well as predictors (i.e., maternal prenatal and postpartum depression symptoms, maternal parenting behaviors) of those trajectories. Infant PA was observed in play and feeding tasks during laboratory visits at 3, 6, and 12 months of age; parenting behaviors were observed at 3 months. Mothers completed questionnaires regarding their symptoms of depression throughout the prenatal period and during the first 3 months postpartum. Growth curve analyses indicated that infant PA increased across time, and this finding replicated across both the play and feeding tasks, though increases slowed over time. Neither maternal prenatal nor postpartum depression symptoms predicted infants' PA trajectories, but mothers' PA, positive parenting, and disengaged parenting were associated with infant PA during the play task. Our finding that infant PA increased over the first year postpartum suggests PA trajectories among infants of mothers with a history of depression may be indices of resilience, despite risks associated with their mothers' history of depression. Furthermore, this study highlights parenting behaviors that may be important targets of prevention and early intervention efforts to bolster infant PA.     

Maternal Depressive Symptoms and 6‐Month‐Old Infants' Sensitivity to Facial Expressions

We examined 6‐month‐old infants' abilities to discriminate smiling and frowning from neutral stimuli. In addition, we assessed the relationship between infants' preferences for varying intensities of smiling and frowning facial expressions and their mothers' history of depressive symptoms. Forty‐six infants were presented pairs of facial expressions, and their preferential looking time was recorded. They also participated in a 3‐min interaction with their mothers for which duration of both mother and infant gazing and smiling were coded. Analyses revealed that the infants reliably discriminated between varying intensities of smiling and frowning facial expressions and a paired neutral expression. In addition, infants' preferences for smiling and frowning expressions were related to self‐reports of maternal depressive symptoms experienced since the birth of the infant. Potential implications for social cognitive development are discussed.     

Twelve‐Month‐Old Infants’ Sensitivity to Others’ Emotions Following Positive and Negative Events

This study investigated infants’ sensitivity to others’ congruent and incongruent emotional reactions to positive and negative events. Thirty‐six 12‐month‐old infants viewed three distinct interpersonal events (give a toy, break a toy, fight over a toy) followed by an emotional expression (happiness, sadness, anger) that was either congruent or incongruent with the preceding event outcome. The duration of infants' looking toward each emotional reaction was examined. Infants demonstrated sensitivity to incongruent emotional reactions for the give and fight events, representing the earliest evidence to date of emotional sensitivity to negative events.     

Emotion Regulation Via Maternal Touch

The study of emotion elicitation in the caregiver‐infant dyad has focused almost exclusively on the facial and vocal channels, whereas little attention has been given to the contribution of the tactile channel. This study was undertaken to investigate the effects of touch on infants' emotions. During the time that objects were presented to the dyad, mothers provided tactile stimulation to their 12‐month‐old infants by either (a) tensing their fingers around the infants' abdomen while abruptly inhaling, (b) relaxing their grip around the infants' abdomen, or (c) not providing additional tactile stimulation (control condition). The results revealed that infants in the first condition (a) touched the objects less and waited longer to touch the objects while displaying more negative emotional displays compared to infants in the control condition. However, no apparent differences were found between infants in the second condition (b) and the control condition. The results suggest that infants' emotions may be elicited by specific parameters of touch.     

Heterogeneity of Joy in Infancy

We examined 7‐month‐old infants' responses to 6 joy‐eliciting episodes. Three episodes included and 3 did not include a major social‐interactive component. Confirmatory factor analysis of infants' joy reactions in these episodes revealed that a 2‐factor model significantly improved the fit over a single‐factor solution. Those 2 factors represented infants' social versus nonsocial joy reactions. Different correlates of those factors supported their external validity. Only social joy was associated with the infants' positive emotional tone observed during naturalistic interactions with their mothers and fathers, and with the parents' ratings of the child's positive affect during social interactions in their daily lives. Social joy may be an early antecedent of future positive emotionality traits related to communal and interpersonal aspects of experience.     

Effects of Maternal Responsiveness on Infant Responsiveness and Behavior in the Still‐Face Task

The effects of maternal responsiveness on infant responsiveness and behavior in the Still‐Face Task were longitudinally examined through infants' first 3 months. Maternal vocal responsiveness and infant vocal and smiling responsiveness significantly increased when infants were 2 months of age. Mothers showed continuity of individual differences in vocal responsiveness from the infants' newborn period. Maternal responsiveness predicted infant responsiveness within and across sessions. Compared with infants with low‐responsive mothers, infants with high‐responsive mothers were more attentive and affectively engaged during the Still‐Face Task from 1 month of age. Infants with high‐responsive mothers discriminated between the task phases with their smiling at 1 month, a month before infants with low‐responsive mothers did so. Infants in both groups discriminated between the phases with their attention and nondistress vocalizations throughout their first 3 months. Results suggest that maternal responsiveness influences infant responsiveness and facilitates infants' engagement and expectations for social interaction.