Poster #110 - Childcare teachers’ sensitivity to infant vocalizations: Experience matters

• In Event: 1-005 - Poster Session 01
  In Poster Session: PS 01 Section - Language, Communication

Integrative Statement

Mothers are sensitive to context and acoustic cues in infant vocalizations and use these cues to vary the content of their responses to infants (Albert, Schwade, & Goldstein, 2018). This maternal feedback provides reliable information that aids infants in learning language. For example, maternal response types at nine months predicts when later language milestones are reached (Tamis-Lemonda, Bornstein, & Baumwell, 2001). However, many infants spend a significant part of their day in child-care settings, typically being cared for by women who are not mothers themselves. Are childcare providers sensitive to variations in acoustic quality of infant vocalizations? We investigated whether non-mothers, with varied amounts of caregiving experience, differ from mothers in their perceptions of and responses to infant vocalizations.

Method: Participants viewed a series of prerecorded audio-visual examples of infants vocalizing and were asked to respond verbally as if they were actually interacting with the infants on the video. We manipulated the acoustic qualities (i.e. how speech-like the vocalizations were; Oller, 2000) and the directedness of the vocalizations (object-directed or undirected) to examine their effects on responding. Participants’ verbal responses were categorized as affirmations, imitations, descriptions, questions, or play prompts. We compared the responses of three groups: inexperienced non-mothers with no caregiving experience (n=20), experienced non-mothers who work as infant child care providers (n=24, 12 full-time, 12 part-time), and mothers (n=40). Participants also rated each vocalization on a seven-point scale indicating vocal maturity. We predicted that full-time child care providers would rate infant vocalizations similarly to mothers, but that the responsibilities of having to care for multiple infants at once would result in child-care providers responding differently than mothers.

Results: Caregiving experience influenced perceptions of infant vocalizations. Mothers’ ratings of the vocalizations significantly increased as the acoustic quality changed from least to most mature. In contrast, non-mothers perceived fewer differences between categories overall, but child-care experience reorganized perception of the intermediate categories of vocalizations (Figure 1). Regardless of experience, non-mothers responded to a similar proportion of the vocalizations in the sample and varied the content of the information provided in their responses. However, non-mothers were significantly less likely to imitate infant vocalizations than mothers. Child care providers were also particularly inclined to respond with affirmations and questions (Figure 2).
Conclusions: Our results suggest that exposure to infant vocalizations via employment is helpful in reorganizing perception of infant sounds. Non-mothers with significant childcare experience perceived vocalizations similarly to mothers. However, child-care providers reactions to infant vocalizations were more similar to inexperienced non-mothers than mothers’ responses. Perhaps childcare providers are more inclined to acknowledge infants’ vocalizations with a general affirmations or question but are less available to provide specific descriptions when they are caring for multiple children simultaneously. Further analyses are underway to determine how childcare providers’ response types vary as a function of vocal quality and infant attention. Understanding the impact of childcare experience on responding is essential because infants’ immature vocalizations construct social interactions that can impact opportunities for learning.

Authors

• D'anna Sydow, Lebanon Valley College
  Presenting Author

• Savannah Toth, Lebanon Valley College
  Non-Presenting Author

• Rachel Albert, Lebanon Valley College
  Non-Presenting Author