2-119 - The Role of Social and Sensorimotor Coordination in Communicative Development of Typical and At-Risk Infants

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

The interactions between parents and infants are rich in temporal and spatial structure. The coordination of eye gaze, reaching, and vocalizations across a parent-infant dyad is an important component of the development of communication and language. Thus individual differences in sensorimotor development or parental responsiveness may affect dyadic coordination and developmental outcomes. Developmental disorders such as autism may impact communicative development via their influence on more basic components such as sensorimotor skills, which then affect social coordination and communication.

The goal of the symposium is to link sensorimotor development, dyadic interaction dynamics, and the emergence of communicative skills. We will show how deficits exhibited in infants at high risk for autism may impact the dynamics of their social interactions with caregivers, who are an essential source of social stimulation. The first paper will discuss the dynamics of multimodal coordination between parent and child and how they emerge through developmental time. The second paper takes a bottom-up approach, exploring how caregivers’ responsiveness is influenced both by infants’ multimodal cues and caregivers’ own attentional and manual states. The third paper will highlight how the phonological characteristics of the vocalizations of at-risk infants can shape maternal responses and affect developmental outcomes. The fourth paper will provide evidence that deficits in the development of prosody are associated with reduced features of social engagement in infants at high risk for autism. Taken together, the papers will provide useful connections between the components of social coordination and the development of communication in typical and at-risk infants.

Sub Unit

• Language, Communication

Chairs

• Melissa Elston, Cornell University

• Gina Marie Mason, Cornell University

Individual Presentations

• Gaze Alternations Between Hands, not Faces, Increase Over First Year - Presenting Author: Kaya Anna de Barbaro, University of California, San Diego; Christine Johnson, University of California, San Diego; Gedeon O Deak, University California San Diego

• Grounding Maternal Responsiveness in Sensory-Motor Dynamics in Toy Play: A Micro-Analysis Approach - Presenting Author: Chen Yu, Indiana University; Seth Foster, Indiana University; Melissa Elston, Cornell University; Linda B Smith, Indiana University; John E Bates, Indiana University, Bloomington

• Maternal Responses to Infant Pre-Speech and Non-Speech Vocalizations in Infants at High Risk for ASD - Presenting Author: Jessie Bolz Northrup, University of Pittsburgh; Jana M Iverson, University of Pittsburgh

• Early Development of Prosodic Interactions in Infants at Risk of Autism - Presenting Author: Gordon Ramsay, Emory University School of Medicine; Shweta Ghai, Emory University School of Medicine; Ami Klin, Emory University