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Language Development & Communication
Promoting Communicating & Speaking
WiseTip: LD-COM-M0003-I01A

Look at your infant face-to-face and respond immediately to any gestures or sounds they make.

1, 2

  1. Bateson, M. C. (1975). Mother-infant exchanges: the epigenesis of conversational interaction. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 263, 101–113. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1975.tb41575.x

  2. Goldstein, M. H., & Schwade, J.A. (2008) Social feedback to infants’ babbling facilitates rapid phonological learning. Psychol Sci 19:515–523.

0-3 months
Interaction with child
WHY IT MATTERS

Babies carry out

protoconversations

Protoconversations - In protoconversation, adults conversed with the preverbal infants, and infants responded by making eye contact, cooing, smiling, showing lip and tongue movements or waving arms. The exchanges of ‘conversations’ between an adult and the infant enable the learning of social aspects of communication by engaging in turn-taking behaviour in protoconversations.1

1. California Department of Education. (2012). California Infant/Toddler Curriculum Framework.

with adults using various gestures and body movements before they can speak. A study showed that maternal interaction with infants as young as two months occurred in various modalities, including gaze and vocalisation.
1, 2

  1. Bateson, M. C. (1975). Mother-infant exchanges: the epigenesis of conversational interaction. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 263, 101–113. doi: 10.1111/j.1749-6632.1975.tb41575.x

  2. Yoo, H., Bowman,D and Kimbrough, O.D., (2018). The Origin of Protoconversation: An Examination of Caregiver Responses to Cry and Speech-Like Vocalizations. Frontiers in Psychology 9: 1510. (Level V) USA.

 Face-to-face interactions and eye gazing help babies to build joint attention with adults. This builds the foundation for future verbal communication.