Parental selection of vocal behavior

Locke, John

doi:10.1007/s12110-006-1015-x

Cited by 66 publications

(45 citation statements)

References 64 publications

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“…The first are regarded as a step into a more elaborate and playful form of vocalization with a function that is related to intuitive parenting and attracting parents. The same holds true for the next stages in verbal development, babbling being the most widely known and most salient realizations that facilitate parental engagement (Locke, 2006) and account for an implicit understanding of how infants sound.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Contributing to the early detection of Rett syndrome: The potential role of auditory Gestalt perception

Marschik

Einspieler

Sigafoos

2012

Research in Developmental Disabilities

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Highlights► First study into the potential role of auditory Gestalt perception for an early detection of RTT. ► The study adds to our understanding of pre-regressional abnormalities in RTT. ► Verbal development in RTT is atypical from the first vocalizations onwards. ► Early atypical verbal behavior is a window to the developing nervous system. ► The study contributes to the early detection of RTT for early intervention.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 89%

Contributing to the early detection of Rett syndrome: The potential role of auditory Gestalt perception

Marschik

Einspieler

Sigafoos

2012

Research in Developmental Disabilities

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“…Furthermore, it is also possible that caregivers engage in 1:1 interactions and/or use parentese speech with children who are more “talkative” or social, and are less likely to engage in these behaviors with children who less “talkative” or less social (Locke, 2006). For example, Fischer and colleagues (Fischer et al, 2011) found that caregivers use parentese-speech when talking to their infants, but use a more standard-like speech when they talk to a “babyface” robot.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Look Who’s Talking NOW! Parentese Speech, Social Context, and Language Development Across Time

2017

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In previous studies, we found that the social interactions infants experience in their everyday lives at 11- and 14-months of age affect language ability at 24 months of age. These studies investigated relationships between the speech style (i.e., parentese speech vs. standard speech) and social context [i.e., one-on-one (1:1) vs. group] of language input in infancy and later speech development (i.e., at 24 months of age), controlling for socioeconomic status (SES). Results showed that the amount of exposure to parentese speech-1:1 in infancy was related to productive vocabulary at 24 months. The general goal of the present study was to investigate changes in (1) the pattern of social interactions between caregivers and their children from infancy to childhood and (2) relationships among speech style, social context, and language learning across time. Our study sample consisted of 30 participants from the previously published infant studies, evaluated at 33 months of age. Social interactions were assessed at home using digital first-person perspective recordings of the auditory environment. We found that caregivers use less parentese speech-1:1, and more standard speech-1:1, as their children get older. Furthermore, we found that the effects of parentese speech-1:1 in infancy on later language development at 24 months persist at 33 months of age. Finally, we found that exposure to standard speech-1:1 in childhood was the only social interaction that related to concurrent word production/use. Mediation analyses showed that standard speech-1:1 in childhood fully mediated the effects of parentese speech-1:1 in infancy on language development in childhood, controlling for SES. This study demonstrates that engaging in one-on-one interactions in infancy and later in life has important implications for language development.

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“…Infant cry pitch varies greatly, and higher pitch is associated with premature birth, smaller infant size, serious health problems, and more negative reactions by parents. Similarly, infant babbling may have evolved as a fitness indicator (Locke 2006) since mothers value babbling and infants who do not babble have an unusually high number of physical, sensory, cognitive, and linguistic disorders. Also, in a study of parental protection, mothers were more likely to buckle visually attractive children into grocery carts and more likely to keep attractive toddlers from wandering out of sight.…”

Section: Parentally Selected Fitness Indicatorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Autism as the Low-Fitness Extreme of a Parentally Selected Fitness Indicator

Shaner

Miller²,

Mintz

2008

Hum Nat

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Siblings compete for parental care and feeding, while parents must allocate scarce resources to those offspring most likely to survive and reproduce. This could cause offspring to evolve traits that advertise health, and thereby attract parental resources. For example, experimental evidence suggests that bright orange filaments covering the heads of North American coot chicks may have evolved for this fitness-advertising purpose. Could any human mental disorders be the equivalent of dull filaments in coot chicks-low-fitness extremes of mental abilities that evolved as fitness indicators? One possibility is autism. Suppose that the ability of very young children to charm their parents evolved as a parentally selected fitness indicator. Young children would vary greatly in their ability to charm parents, that variation would correlate with underlying fitness, and autism could be the low-fitness extreme of this variation. This view explains many seemingly disparate facts about autism and leads to some surprising and testable predictions.

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Parental selection of vocal behavior

Cited by 66 publications

References 64 publications

Contributing to the early detection of Rett syndrome: The potential role of auditory Gestalt perception

Contributing to the early detection of Rett syndrome: The potential role of auditory Gestalt perception

Look Who’s Talking NOW! Parentese Speech, Social Context, and Language Development Across Time

Autism as the Low-Fitness Extreme of a Parentally Selected Fitness Indicator

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