Communication Changes When Infants Begin to Walk

Autor/inn/en	West, Kelsey L.; Iverson, Jana M.
Titel	Communication Changes When Infants Begin to Walk
Quelle	In: Developmental Science, 24 (2021) 5, (14 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1467-7687
DOI	10.1111/desc.13102
Schlagwörter	Infants; Infant Behavior; Physical Mobility; Caregiver Child Relationship; Longitudinal Studies; Nonverbal Communication; Child Development; Language Acquisition; Age Differences; Linguistic Input; Oral Language + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Infant; Toddler; Toddlers; Kleinkind; Longitudinal study; Longitudinal method; Longitudinal methods; Längsschnittuntersuchung; Non-verbal communication; Nonverbale Kommunikation; Kindesentwicklung; Sprachaneignung; Spracherwerb; Age; Difference; Age difference; Altersunterschied; Sprachbildung; Oral interpretation; Mündlicher Sprachgebrauch
Abstract	Learning to walk allows infants to travel faster and farther and explore more of their environments. In turn, walking may have a cascading effect on infants' communication and subsequent responses from caregivers. We tested for an "inflection point"--a dramatic shift in the developmental progression--in infant communication and caregiver responses when infants started walking. We followed 25 infants longitudinally over 7 months surrounding the onset of walking (mean walk onset age = 11.76 months, SD = 1.56). After learning to walk, the pace of gesture growth (but not vocalization growth) increased substantially, and infants increasingly coordinated gestures and vocalizations with locomotion (e.g., by walking to a caregiver and showing off a toy bear). Consequently, caregivers had more opportunities to respond contingently to their infants during walking months compared to crawling months (e.g., "What did you find? Is that your bear?"). Changes in communication were amplified for infants who began walking at older ages, compared to younger walkers. Findings suggest that learning to walk marks a point in development when infants actively communicate in new ways, and consequently elicit rich verbal input from caregivers. (As Provided).
Anmerkungen	Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://www.wiley.com/en-us
Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01