2-033 - More than Words: How Nonverbal Signals Help Shape Early Language Development

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

The notion that children’s language input is critical in shaping language development is widely accepted. The impact of the speech children hear has in particular received much attention among basic and translational scientists alike. Child-directed speech, however, occurs not in a vacuum but in interactive contexts rich with non-verbal communicative signals. Parents employ cues such as gestures or gaze to establish joint attention, to draw attention to objects and events, and to provide clues to word meaning. The goal of this symposium is to outline a more complete account of how the input shapes early language by understanding how verbal and non-verbal signals interconnect and jointly contribute to learning.

The first two papers investigate developmental changes in the dynamics of infant and parents’ attention, their actions and parents’ speech. Paper 1 examines changes in the social visual environment (i.e., parents’ signals visible to infants) during dyadic object play. Paper 2 examines the cascading effects of changes in infant attentional coordination (their gaze and actions) on language input. The second set of papers investigates how multi-modal signals relate to learning. Paper 3 asks which non-verbal signals to parents’ referential intentions do toddlers recruit for word learning. Paper 4 compares infants with different language experiences, illustrating how language history affects maternal production of, and infants’ attention to, multimodal signals.

These papers illustrate the inseparability of the speech children hear from the nonverbal contexts in which it occurs. All authors will discuss the implications of their work for input-driven accounts of language development.

Sub Unit

• Language, Communication

Chair

• Sumarga H Suanda, Indiana University

Individual Presentations

• The Role of Nonverbal Communication in Guiding Early Attention - Presenting Author: Joseph M Burling, University of Houston; Hanako Yoshida, University of Houston

• To Hear and to Hold: Maternal Naming and Infant Object Exploration - Presenting Author: Lucas Chang, University of California, San Diego; Kaya Anna de Barbaro, University of California, San Diego; Gedeon O Deak, University California San Diego

• Nonverbal Cues to Parent Naming and to Child Learning: Are they One and the Same? - Presenting Author: Sumarga H Suanda, Indiana University; Linda B Smith, Indiana University; Chen Yu, Indiana University

• Lexical-Dominance, Multimodal Motherese, and Infant Verb Learning - Presenting Author: Lakshmi J Gogate, Department of Psychology; Maganti Madhavilatha, Bowling Green State University