Vocal production and exploration during infancy: the role of constrained motor production, cognitive processing, and parental support

Veronica Bonilla-Pacheco

Motor and language development interact during the first years of life to contribute to the development of more complex communication skills. Recent studies have highlighted the complementary nature of these systems both theoretically and empirically. Although a holistic view of how these systems co-develop has not been explored, a recent study found that infants who were observed playing with toys in a naturalistic environment spent more time practicing language skills when performing gross motor skills than when performing fine motor skills. Two possible explanations for these findings were offered: fine motor skills interfered with infants' vocal practice for later language development or the high cognitive load demand during object exploration hampered infants' vocal practice for later language progress. The current study focused on these explanations using a experimental design in order to better understand how to influence language progress early in development. As a second exploratory objective, the influence of maternal support on infants' vocal production was also studied when infants were performing motor skills and during high and low cognitive demand exploratory conditions. Sixteen infants and their mothers were recruited from childcare centers and support groups. Participants visited the lab twice in a week. During each visit, they were exposed to two play sessions that had toys that were modified to achieve the following conditions: 1) Fine motor skill-high cognitive load (FHL); 2) Gross motor skill-high cognitive load (GHL); 3) Fine motor skill-low cognitive load (FLL), and 4) Gross motor skill-low cognitive load (GLL). Infants had the opportunity to play by themselves and with their mothers and were video recorded for later analysis of vocal production. Results indicated that infants produced more vowels during FLL condition than during FHL condition. However, they produced more vowels when in the GHL condition than in the GLL condition. In addition, infants vegetative sounds were higher when exploring toys without mothers than with mothers. Maternal support did not influence consonant vowel practice during object exploration. Instead, maternal support was associated with more infant positive affectivity during high cognitive load conditions but not during low cognitive load conditions.

Vocal production and exploration during infancy: the role of constrained motor production, cognitive processing, and parental support

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