Expressions of belonging: the effect of acculturation on the rhythm and harmony of mother-infant vocal interaction

Abstract

The rhythmic structure of naturally occurring mother-infant vocal interaction was analysed within three different cultural contexts. Previous research suggests that rhythm is used universally to facilitate the sharing of affect and meaning. Well-timed mother-infant communication is thought to permit a particular form of direct mind-to-mind communication. The purpose of the study was to ascertain whether one of the functions of this “intersubjective” communication is to allow culturally significant experiences to be shared at a non-verbal and affect-bound level. The main hypothesis was that changes in the cultural identity of the mother, and her sense of emotional security, would significantly affect the rhythmic organisation of non-verbal vocal interaction. Out of thirty-six mother-infant dyads studied, twelve were from India and lived in India, twelve were from India and lived in France, and twelve were from France and lived in France. The results suggest that immigrant dyads have significantly less well-timed vocal interactions than non-immigrant dyads and that this is due to an identity confusion on the part of the immigrant mother. Other factors that may influence the rhythmicity of the vocal interactions of immigrant dyads were examined. Results also highlighted cultural differences in the nature and form of the mothers’ vocalisations.

The Music One‐to‐One project: developing approaches to music with parents and under‐two‐year‐olds

“…Building on earlier work, researchers are now discovering cultural variations in this music of interaction identified by subtle differences in tempo, dynamic intensity and rhythm-yet differences which are framed by basic parameters which appear to be similar to all. Moreover, they are finding that communicative musicality is easily disturbed by post-natal depression (Murray et al, 1993;Robb, 1999) or other forms of upset, such as migration (Gratier, 1999). Disruptions and distresses translate into disturbances to these finely balanced cultural and interpersonal communicatively musical features.…”

Sense and Synchrony: Infant Communication and Musical Improvisation

“…They were characterized by greater overlap between mother and infant (less of a turn-taking format), less verbalization on the part of the mother, more vocalization (perhaps surprisingly) on the part of the infant, and a much shorter between-speaker pause indicating that Indian mothers and infants, on average, wait less long to take a turn than do mothers and infants in the other two contexts. 67 The between-speaker pauses in French and North American mother-infant dyads corresponded roughly to the betweenspeaker pauses typically found in adult verbal conversation in these two cultures. 68 between human agents, between young infants with very little cognitive and communicative competence-but who are equipped from birth with the fundamental competency to achieve synchrony with competent social partnersand improvising musicians whose competencies are highly developed in specific domains involved in collective music making.…”

Early detection of core deficits in autism

“…Studies of the vocal expressions of mothers and infants in face-to-face interaction have highlighted the precise temporal and prosodic organization of their utterances and their use of protoconversational rules such as turn-taking, repair, overlap, and collaborative completion [Gratier, 1999[Gratier, , 2003Malloch, 1999;Trevarthen, 1999]. Between 2 and 6 months infants are particularly expressive in the vocal register; they actively respond to and initiate vocal engagement with interactive partners and they spontaneously imitate or mirror their mothers' expressions [Kokkinaki and Kugiumutzakis, 2000].…”