Volubility of the human infant: Effects of parental interaction (or lack of it)

Iyer, Suneeti Nathani; Denson, Hailey; Lazar, Nicole A.; Oller, D. Kimbrough

doi:10.3109/02699206.2016.1147082

Cited by 38 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 29 publications

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“…Infants in their home setting may be more likely to vocalize than infants in less familiar contexts. Previous evidence also suggests that the presence of a stranger may reduce volubility in infants [Iyer, Denson, Lazar, & Oller, 2016]. It is also possible that the age difference between these samples contributed to this discrepancy.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

A Six‐Minute Measure of Vocalizations in Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder

et al. 2020

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To improve early identification of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we need objective, reliable, and accessible measures. To that end, a previous study demonstrated that a tablet‐based application (app) that assessed several autism risk behaviors distinguished between toddlers with ASD and non‐ASD toddlers. Using vocal data collected during this study, we investigated whether vocalizations uttered during administration of this app can distinguish among toddlers aged 16–31 months with typical development (TD), language or developmental delay (DLD), and ASD. Participant's visual and vocal responses were recorded using the camera and microphone in a tablet while toddlers watched movies designed to elicit behaviors associated with risk for ASD. Vocalizations were then coded offline. Results showed that (a) children with ASD and DLD were less likely to produce words during app administration than TD participants; (b) the ratio of syllabic vocalizations to all vocalizations was higher among TD than ASD or DLD participants; and (c) the rates of nonsyllabic vocalizations were higher in the ASD group than in either the TD or DLD groups. Those producing more nonsyllabic vocalizations were 24 times more likely to be diagnosed with ASD. These results lend support to previous findings that early vocalizations might be useful in identifying risk for ASD in toddlers and demonstrate the feasibility of using a scalable tablet‐based app for assessing vocalizations in the context of a routine pediatric visit. Lay Summary Although parents often report symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in infancy, we are not yet reliably diagnosing ASD until much later in development. A previous study tested a tablet‐based application (app) that recorded behaviors we know are associated with ASD to help identify children at risk for the disorder. Here we measured how children vocalize while they watched the movies presented on the tablet. Children with ASD were less likely to produce words, less likely to produce speechlike sounds, and more likely to produce atypical sounds while watching these movies. These measures, combined with other behaviors measured by the app, might help identify which children should be evaluated for ASD. Autism Res 2020, 13: 1373–1382. © 2020 International Society for Autism Research, Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

A Six‐Minute Measure of Vocalizations in Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder

et al. 2020

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“…Also in a small-scale study with just 16 minutes of recording per infant at 6-8 months, 80 infants produced more vocalizations when playing alone with toys than when engaged socially 81 (35). Another recent observational study found no significant difference in protophone volubility 82 between a recording circumstance where parents talked to infants compared to circumstances where parents were in the same room and silent or not present in the room at all, suggesting that 84 infants had an "independent inclination to vocalize spontaneously" (p. 481) (36) in the absence 85 of social interaction. Importantly, the rate of protophone production has been reported to be very 86 high, >4 protophones per minute during all-day audio recordings, across the entire first year, and 87 even when infants were judged to be alone in a room, the rate was >3 per minute (37).…”

Section: Development 68mentioning

confidence: 97%

Social and endogenous infant vocalizations

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Yoo

Burkhardt-Reed

et al. 2019

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27 Research on infant vocal development is focused primarily on vocal interaction with caregivers, 28 where it appears to be largely assumed that infants vocalize mostly for the purpose of interaction. 29 A survey of both parents and non-parents indicated that public opinion conformed to the 30 expectation that infant vocalization is mostly socially interactive. However, we report that in 31 laboratory recordings of infants and their parents, the bulk of infant speech-like vocalizations 32 ("protophones") were directed toward no one, and instead appeared to be generated 33 endogenously in exploration of vocal abilities. The tendency to produce protophones without 34 directing them to others occurred both during periods when parents were instructed to interact 35 with their infants and during periods when parents were occupied with an interviewer, with the 36 infants in the room. The results emphasize the infant as an agent in vocal learning, not as a 37 passive recipient of vocal input.38 Keywords: Speech development 1 , Social interaction 2 , Illocutionary force 3 , Prelinguistic 39 communication 4 , Origin of language 5 , Language development 6 , Evolutionary-development 7 42 The study of vocal development has been dominated by the expectation that infants primarily 43 vocalize in a speech-like manner when they are in social engagement, an expectation suggesting 44 social interaction drives prelinguistic vocal development (1-6). Granted, social learning is 45 required in order for infants to acquire the language-specific syllables and phonemic elements 46 and the largely arbitrary pairings of words with meanings in languages. Thus, there can be no 47 doubt that social interaction plays a critical role in infant vocal learning and language 48 acquisition. Surprisingly, however, we know little about the extent to which infants actually 49 engage in directed vocal interaction using the speech-like sounds or "protophones" of infancy 50 (which include both canonical babbling and precanonical speech precursors in accord with the 51 terminology of Oller, 2000), as opposed to simply vocalizing playfully or exploratorily. The 52 proportion of infant protophones that are socially-directed has, to our knowledge, never been 53 previously quantified, so the extent to which infant protophone production may be primarily 54 endogenous rather than social is unknown.55 Even so, infant vocalization, especially in the context of social interaction, has been researched 56 for half a century (8-13). A social feedback loop has been posited to exist in infant and child 57 vocalization, and that loop has been thought to promote contingent infant vocalizations with 58 respect to caregiver vocalizations (14-17). Experimental studies in the still-face paradigm (18) 59 have shown that by 5-6 months of age, infants increase the rate of protophone production when 60 the parent disengages from an ongoing vocal interaction (19,20), suggesting infants by that age 61 seek to repair broken interactions with increased vocalization. SOCIAL AND NON...

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“…When evaluating the emergence of canonical babbling, there is reason to consider potential differences in social and endogenous motivations behind the production of these advanced vocal forms. Considerable research has evaluated the role of social interaction in infant vocal development and the emergence of language (Franklin et al, 2013;Gros-Louis et al, 2014;Hsu & Fogel, 2001;Iyer et al, 2016;Lee et al, 2018). Caregivers are known to elicit and maintain "protoconversations" (Bateson, 1975), supporting the emergence of mature vocal stages such as canonical syllables and words (Bråten, 1988;Golinkoff et al, 1992;Rochat et al, 1999).…”

Section: The Social and Endogenous Nature Of Infant Vocalizationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Canonical babbling during vocal turn taking and independent vocal play

Long

Ramsay

Bowman

et al. 2020

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There is a growing body of research emphasizing the role of intrinsic motivation and endogenous activity to support the development of cognitive systems alongside the well-established role of social interaction. The present study longitudinally evaluated canonical babbling across the second-half year of life, when canonical babbling becomes well-established. We compared segments rated as having high and low levels of turn taking and independent vocal play in 98 children at low and high risk for autism spectrum disorder. Segments were extracted from all-day home audio recordings to observe infants in naturalistic settings. Canonical babbling ratios (CBR) were determined based on human coding along with Likert-scale ratings on the level of turn taking and vocal play in each segment. We observed highly significant differences in CBRs between risk groups during high and low vocal play, but high and low levels of turn taking yielded a weaker effect. There were also interactions of CBR with age, risk, and vocal function variables. We conclude that social and endogenous/exploratory motivations may drive both high- and low-risk infant tendencies to produce their most speech-like vocalizations.

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Volubility of the human infant: Effects of parental interaction (or lack of it)

Cited by 38 publications

References 29 publications

A Six‐Minute Measure of Vocalizations in Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder

A Six‐Minute Measure of Vocalizations in Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Social and endogenous infant vocalizations

Canonical babbling during vocal turn taking and independent vocal play

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