Signs of emotion: What can preverbal children “say” about internal states?

Abstract

Do infants explicitly recognize feelings and emotions in themselves and others? What would preverbal children say about internal states if they had the words? Investigation of infants' emotional understanding is limited by the challenge of understanding infant mental states before the onset of speech. I examined the use of symbolic gestures by normally hearing, preverbal children to discover whether infants and toddlers represent emotion concepts such as sad and scared, and feeling words such as sleepy. Participants were 22 children (5-28 months) in a childcare program where caregivers modeled symbolic gestures. Gesture use by children and caregivers were videotaped and coded to determine context, characteristics, and frequency. Twenty of 22 children used symbolic gestures; of these, 6 used emotion gestures, and 5 used feeling gestures. These gestures were not imitations of adult gestures, and qualitative data reveal their context and significance. Symbolic gestures reveal the sophistication of infants' internal worlds and their ability and desire to communicate thoughts and feelings. Symbolic gestures are a promising methodology for investigating early explicit mental processes. As a therapeutic communication tool, symbolic gestures may help children express emotions, participate in conversations about emotion, and construct their own understanding of internal states.Katie, 27 months old, sat at the art table in the toddler classroom with her mother and caregiver and played with the paint. Katie looked intently at the picture that she was drawing. She painted a circle and said "Happy face," and smiled. Then, looking at her mother, she said "Mama, you make a happy face." Katie's mother painted a circle. Katie took her paint brush and put two dots in her mother's circle; she looked up and said "Eyes." She smiled and, taking her brush again, painted a line in the circle, saying "Smile." She added a third dot, smiled, and said "I made a nose!" Her classroom caregiver reflected, "Katie, you finished the happy face! You put eyes and a nose and a mouth on the happy face!" Katie smiled and returned to her painting.Meanwhile, 24-month-old Gerry stood by the front door of the toddler classroom crying, and whimpered "Mommy." He walked over to the book shelves, slapped a single hand at a few of the books, and then paused as he cried. Gerry's caregiver, Mandy, approached and sat down next to him, saying "Gerry, I see that you are sad. You're thinking about your mom." He continued to cry and crawled onto a soft chair. Mandy asked "Do you want to read a book?" Gerry whimpered "Yes." He climbed slowly out of the chair, walked to the books, and went directly to the book about gorillas. He carried it to Mandy, sat between her legs, looked up at her, still sad, and said "Mommy." Mandy responded "This is the book your mom was reading to you." With his head down and hands busy flipping open the book pages, Gerry whispered "Yes." Mandy began to read. In the first observation, Katie represented the concept of happy through bo...

The Role of Metaphor in the Structuring of Emotion Concepts

“…Contrary to the common view outlined above, evidence from infants and toddlers enrolled in a symbolic gesture programme at the University of California, Davis (Vallotton 2008) indicates much earlier command of emotion concepts. Infants use symbolic gestures not simply for telling others how they feel, but also (by nine months) for clarifying their internal states after a caregiver's misinterpretation, reflecting (15.2 months) on the cause of or response to emotions they observe in another child, reflecting (11.1 months) on their internal states in past experiences, and even expressing (14.7 months) thoughts about emotions.…”

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“…Various studies conducted with hearing impaired adults and children have stated that teaching sign language to children with normal hearing at different ages as a second language was effective on their interpersonal communication, awareness of the disabled, and social interactions (Felzer, 1998), children who had grown up in families where sign language was used could express their feelings better and had higher confidence in their level of communication (Gongora & Farkas, 2009;Vallotton, 2008b), and hearing impaired children could understand adults' behaviors more easily and quickly in environments where sign language was used (Vallotton, 2008a(Vallotton, , 2009(Vallotton, , 2011. These findings support the current research participants' opinions about language use, confidence, academic support, and increased quality of interaction with sign language.…”

“…Research conducted on sign language has included suggestions regarding the participation of families with hearing-impaired children in sign language education programs and which qualities these programs should have (Felzer, 1998;Vallotton, 2008bVallotton, , 2009Vallotton, , 2011. It was stated that sign language instructors who take part in these programs should understand families; communicate with them effectively; have high levels of professional and personal competency; have improved teaching skills; have information about health, education, and child development; be open to cooperation; be able to use research methods and techniques; and have the ability to observe.…”

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“…One study followed one cohort of 10 infants over 8 months, filming 5-min episodes of infant-caregiver interaction during free play and snack times several times each week. The second study followed one cohort of 12 toddlers over a period of 3 months, filming them during episodes of naturally occurring distress, during separation, diapering, and conflict between peers; videos and the resulting transcripts from these episodes vary widely in length because filming did not stop until children's distress had resolved, as indicated by their resuming normal activity (for full details on the collection, coding, and transcription of these videos, see Vallotton, 2008b). Anecdotal Notes [AN] are systematic records of CCFS caregivers' observations of infants, written objectively and in careful detail.…”