Language Development In Infants

Language development may happen at very different times for infants, but all infants develop language. Infants grow in their language development as they go through different stages. Infants are wired to learn language and that starts in the mother womb. Many things happen after the baby is born that are vital to their language development. In order to understand how language develops, we have to look at certain events that happen in an infant’s life that shape this development.

First Infants are prewired to learn how to communicate, certain abilities and behaviors suggest that. Infants have the ability to recognize their mother’s voice, when in the womb. Once born, infants are able to then distinguish their own language from others. In order to start communicating, infants cry to let their caregivers know their needs. Then they start smiling and babbling. This creates relationships with others around them. Infants also communicate

using certain types of vocalizations know as Proto-phones. Infants then will point at objects they want and use gestures to communicate with others. With all these different steps, the infant language develops more and more.
Different types of communication also help the infant develop language. Gaze coupling is a type of interaction, normally with a caregiver, that communicates a connection between two people. This is when an infant and a caregiver stare at each other. For example, when a mother is feeding her baby. This type of interaction is very important to the child, not only to make a connection with the mother, but also for emotional development as well. Feeding is also an interaction between a baby and their caregivers that is another form of communication. When a caregiver feeds a child, they are non-verbally communicating that they will tend to the infants need. This develops into ritualized behavior. This comes for the caregiver’s consistent help they provide to the baby, such as nap time, feeding time, and bath time. The infant knows that the caregiver will help them with their needs. Ritualized behavior also comes from the infant, and helps the infant communicate their ideas and needs. For example, certain gestures are used to communicate with the parent. Over time a parent may recognize that a certain gesture has meaning to it. Lastly, game play help the child interact with others around them and build a connection. This is extremely important because interactions is how children develop language. So when an infant interacts in these different way, they develop a bond with their caregivers promoting communication.
Gestures are also an important aspect of language development. Gestures are a powerful tool infants use to communicate with adults. They communicate their wants and needs. Once they get the response they were looking for, they are more likely to repeat the gestures because it successfully communicated the infant’s wants. Using gestures is an infant’s way of intentionally communicating with a caregiver. According to the textbook, most infants begin to point at objects when they are around six to ten months. This is purposefully pointing to communicate with parents. Then an infant will use gestures and sounds to designate what they want or to communicate their wants with an adult. This is an important step in language development because they are making the connection between sounds and communication. Babies then start to use “inventive gestures” that go beyond just pointing. This is a form of communication because parents begin to know what the child want or needs. As they increase in age, they begin to depend on vocal communication and the gestures fade. The sequence of gesture usage is an important step to achieving linguistic competence.
The next very important aspect to language development is the interaction between the adult and child and how they affect one another. The caregiver can affect the child’s language development in many ways. One important type of communication that has a great impact on a child’s language development is Child Directed Communication, or Parentese. This impact the child’s ability to learn language and studies have shown that when parent use Child Directed Speech, it positively increase the infants ability to learn language. Not only do parent help children learn through Child Directed Speech but children affect the parent’s interactions as well. When a child reacts to what a parent is saying or doing the parent is most likely going to repeat whatever they were doing. This helps the child learn language. This is an extremely important cycle of interactions that help promote language development.
There are three important types of interactions between a caregiver and a child that really have and impact on language development.

The first is joint referencing, this happens when a child and caregiver are focused on the same object. This infant is drawing the attention of a parent to a particular object, for example a bottle of milk. Through joint referencing a child is able to communication their thoughts to a parent. Joint actions is when a child indicates a want to the parent and a parent follows through with what the infant wanted. For example, the child looked at a bottle of milk, the caregiver says milk and gives the milk to the child. The last form of interaction is turn taking. This is important even if a child does not yet know how to communicate. For example, a mother says, “how do you feel”, and they baby responds with a coo, and the mom say, “oh I’m glad you’re feeling good today.” All these interactions are extremely important because it’s helping the infant develop language through interactions with the

caregiver.
Lastly, differences in socioeconomic status and culture can play a big role in how infants develop language. First, Japanese mothers and American mothers differ on how they communicate with children. According to the textboo, American mothers encourage their child when they look away with comments such as “oh you would like to look at something else?” Where mothers in Japan would discourage their child to do so. This would affect how children explore the world and their communication. Regarding Socioeconomic status, lower income families are more likely to work more hours and spend less time with their children. This decreases the amount of rich vocab the infants hear compared to a middle to upper-class child. Research has shown that middle to upper-class children are exposed to a more vocabulary rich environment, with more time focused on communication. Studies also show that children born to poor families are months to years behind a middle to upper-class child. That is a huge difference in language development. So culture and Socioeconomic status makes a huge difference in the language development of an infant.
Overall, many different aspects contribute to the language development of infants. Different behaviors, interactions, statues, and cultures can have a huge impact on language development. In order to understand how an infant learns language, it is important to understand all the different aspects that go into language development. Language is a very intricate system, it takes many different steps to achieve linguistic competence.