Caregivers provide more labeling responses to infants' pointing than to infants' object-directed vocalizations

Abstract

Existing studies have observed a robust relationship between infants' pointing gestures and language outcomes. By contrast, infants' overall vocal production is not related to language outcomes. One possible explanation for the association between pointing and language is that pointing gestures, as compared to vocalizations, may elicit more verbal responses from social partners that are facilitative for language learning. To test this, we observed forty-seven infants aged 1;0 during free play with their mothers and fathers separately to compare parents' verbal responses to infants' pointing gestures and object-directed vocalizations. Results showed that, compared to object-directed vocalizations, infants' pointing elicited more verbal responses from parents, particularly object labels. Moreover, mothers were more likely than fathers to provide labels. These results may help explain why pointing is associated with indices of language acquisition, but the production of vocalizations is not.

Predictors of Parent Responsiveness to 1-Year-Olds At-Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder

“…The baseline regression model included only child communication as a predictor of parent responsiveness variables, due to replicated previous findings indicating associations between these two variables (Abraham et al, 2013; Leezenbaum et al, 2014; Talbott et al, 2015; Tamis-LeMonda et al, 2001; Wu & Gros-Louis, 2015). Subsequent variables were added to this baseline model, resulting in the following regression models: (a) child communication (as measured by either the CSBS-DP-CQ or the CSBS-DP-BS); (b) child communication and nonverbal cognitive level (as measured by the MSEL visual reception T score); (c) child communication and HYPO (as measured by either the SPA or SEQ); and (d) child communication and HYPER (as measured by either the SPA or SEQ).…”

“…Parents tend to respond more frequently to their infants with or without risk for ASD when the infant uses more sophisticated communication (Abraham et al, 2013; Karasik et al, 2014; Leezenbaum et al, 2014; Talbott et al, 2015; Wu & Gros-Louis, 2015). The current study supports these past findings.…”

“…Parents tend to respond more frequently to (a) consonant-vowel utterances at 9 months of age, as opposed to vowel-only utterances, regardless of whether the child has high- or low-risk for ASD based on family history (Talbott, Nelson, & Tager-Flusberg, 2015); and (b) pointing and showing gestures at 13 months of age, as opposed to giving and requesting gestures, when the child is at low-risk for developing ASD based on family history (Leezenbaum et al, 2014), and particularly when the child is moving while gesturing (i.e., walking or crawling) (Karasik, Tamis-Lemonda, & Adolph, 2014). When both gestures and vocalizations are considered in typically developing 12-month-olds, parents are more likely to respond to pointing than vocalizations (Wu & Gros-Louis, 2015). …”

“…However, parents of children with or at-risk for ASD tend to have fewer opportunities to respond (Leezenbaum et al, 2014). For example, when infants show or point to objects, parents often “translate” the child’s gesture into an object name (Leezenbaum et al, 2014; Wu & Gros-Louis, 2015). However, infant siblings at-risk for ASD tend to point to and show objects less frequently than low-risk infants, providing fewer opportunities for this verbal input (Leezenbaum et al, 2014).…”

“…The Transactional Model of Development posits that there is a bidirectional relationship between parent responsiveness and children’s social-communication outcomes (Fiese & Sameroff, 1989; Sameroff, 2009; Sameroff & Mackenzie, 2003). Children who clearly communicate their interests elicit responses from those in their environment (Abraham, Crais, & Vernon-Feagans, 2013; Leezenbaum, Campbell, Butler, & Iverson, 2014; Wu & Gros-Louis, 2015), demonstrating a skill known as “joint attention,” or the ability to communicate interests with another person or respond to another person’s interests, simply because of a desire to share the experience (Mundy et al, 2007). A child with joint attention skills could point at an airplane, prompting the mother to say, “Airplane!”, a response that continues to strengthen the child’s communication learning (Leezenbaum et al, 2014).…”