Language prerequisites: behavioral patterns in the infant-caregiver interaction

Authors

  • Carlos Barbosa Alves de Souza Universidade Federal do Pará
  • Luciana dos Reis Affonso Universidade Federal do Pará

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5380/psi.v11i1.5301

Keywords:

infant-caregiver interactions, behavioral patterns, language prerequisites

Abstract

Infant-caregiver interaction is a fundamental aspect in language acquisition process. The objective of this study was to identify and analyze behavioral patterns (caregiver’s teaching strategies; child cognitive acquisitions) established in infant-caregiver interactions during the first year of life. Two boys and one girl participated, all two months of age at the start of the study, usually accompanied by their mothers. Weekly sessions of infant-caregiver interaction were filmed. Results showed that, initially, caregiver behaviors of ‘adapting’ and ‘pointing’ and infant behavior ‘observing’ were most frequent. From the fifth month on, ‘pointing’, ‘cognitive acquisitions’ and ‘sounds’ were more frequent. It was also observed that 1) ‘crying’, ‘laughing and ‘motor interaction’ were most frequent in the ‘dynamic modules’; 2) the most frequent instance of ‘protolinguistic interaction’ was ‘nonverbal of the caregiver’; and 3) the most frequent ‘teaching strategies’ were ‘pointing’, ‘adapting’ and ‘giving feedback’. In general, co-variations between caregiver and infant behaviors were observed. Results are discussed in terms of the child-caregiver interaction literature, previous data from this line of investigation and possible roles of those behavioral patterns as prerequisites in language acquisition.

Keywords: infant-caregiver interactions; behavioral patterns; language prerequisites.

 

Published

2007-11-30

How to Cite

Souza, C. B. A. de, & dos Reis Affonso, L. (2007). Language prerequisites: behavioral patterns in the infant-caregiver interaction. Interação Em Psicologia, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.5380/psi.v11i1.5301

Issue

Section

Articles