Vision and Hearing Abilities of Newborns

Vision

• newborns are nearsighted at birth

• they’re sensitive to brightness & color

• they recognize an object that reappears within 2.5 seconds

• by 2 months, the newborn has some short-term mental images for people and objects in their environment

• within a few months, vision and reach are coordinated

  • this is very important for developing communication skills

Hearing

• able to distinguish loudness and duration of sound

• within days, the newborn can discriminate between different phonemes (sounds of speech)

• within 2 weeks, fluid in the middle ear drains and improves hearing

• they learn to coordinate vision and hearing in the first few weeks

  • they can turn their head toward a sound

Infant Motor Skills

• the control of large muscles moves progressively downward

• the control of the head, neck, and trunk development occurs first so sitting is accomplished by 6 months

• the exploration of objects (characteristics and functions) form early concepts that are the bases for word definitions

• by 1 year, the infant progresses through crawling to walking

  • not all babies crawl, but can usually crawl at around 8 months

  • females tend to be early with language milestone and males tend to be early with motor milestones

Infant Communication

• Caregivers talk to newborns/infants as if the babies understand

  • caregivers are very important in the formation of communication

• As babies begin to understand, caregivers modify speech to maximize child’s participation

• By 1 month, infant initiates interaction by gazing at caregiver & vocalizing

• To maintain infant’s attention, the caregiver exaggerate facial expression, voice, and vocalizes more often

• Infants respond to this exaggeration and both partners affect the interaction

“Conversations” with Infants

• More conversational turn taking begins between the infant and caregiver at about 12 weeks

• At 6 weeks, infant can fix on caregiver’s eyes and “hold it” with eye-widening and brightening

  • The infant is more likely to look and continue looking at a caregiver who looks back

  • Play begins

• Stimulus-response sequence: if the infant signals, the caregiver will respond

  • learned at 0-3 months

  • a relatively constant stimulus/signal results in a predictable response

• At 3-4 months, more predictable patterns have emerged

  • rituals (eg feeding/diaper changing)

  • game playing (peekaboo)

• At 6 months, the baby’s interest in toys increases

  • now interactions often involve the caregiver, baby and object

• Joint attention: shared focus of 2 or more people on the same object

• Parent reference to objects, people, events outside of immediate context increases

• At 8-9 months intentionality (goal-directedness) develops

  • The baby considers his audience when attempting a communicative act

  • Different behaviors signal different intentions

• At 12 months, first meaningful words are used

Speech Development

• In newborns, speech starts with reflexive sounds like burping, vegetative sounds

• Most oral reflexes disappear/are modified by 6 months

  • except the big 4 reflexes

    • gagging

    • yawning

    • coughing

    • sneezing

• Initially, newborns cry on inhalation and exhalation

  • efficient sound production gradually increases

• By the end of the 1st month, caregivers tell the reason for crying by different sound patterns

• Crying helps the baby modify breathing patterns and get used to air flow across the vocal folds

  • vocal folds: where speech sounds originate)

• Non-crying sounds are more important in speech development

  • These sounds usually accompany feeding or produced in response to the caregiver

• Sounds contain phonation or vocal fold vibration at the larynx

  • phonation: voicing or producing sounds of speech

• The child does not yet have the ability to produce fully resonated and articulated speech sounds

  • Speech production is by chance

Some Definitions

• Resonation: Modification of the vibratory pattern of the laryngeal tone through changes in the size and configuration of the vocal tract

  • The vocal tract is the nasal cavity, mouth, and pharynx/throat

• Articulation: Rapid and coordinated movements of the tongue, teeth, lips and palate to produce speech sounds

Speech: The First 12 Months

• 2 months:

  • cooing or gooing

    • sounds from the back of the throat

• 4 months:

  • babbling may begin with a consonant-vowel structure

• 5 months:

  • babies imitate the tone & pitch of caregivers

• 6 months:

  • more labial (lip) sounds produced as muscle control moves forward from the back of the mouth

    • “ma ma” and “pa pa”

• 6-7 months:

  • reduplicated babbling begins

    • babies can make longer strings of sounds

    • the actual consonant-vowel patterns sound the same but intonation & pitch can vary

  • The baby begins to adapt to the speech patterns of their environment

  • Stops, nasals, and approximant phonemes predominate consonants of English in baby’s vocalizations.

    • Stops: the sound stops in the oral cavity (pa, ba, ka, etc.)

    • Nasals: the sound goes through the nasal cavity (mm, nn, etc.)

    • Approximate phonemes: similar phonemes to english (wa, etc.)

• 8-12 months:

  • Echolalic stage: babies can repeat what they hear

    • not a lot of meaning in this speech

  • variegated babbling- “ma ba ga”

  • Babies notice contrasts in pitch, vowels, and consonants

  • Jargon: long strings of sound with adult-like patterns

    • adults cannot understand this

    • the rhythm of speech sounds like an adult but it has no meaning

    • bad if jargon persists after 18 months

Language Development

• Learning language encompasses learning that one thing can represent another

• Language is related to cognitive skills

  • Cognitive skills & language develop together

• For a baby, their mom’s voice will come to represent their mom

• Later, other noises and objects will come to represent events and other objects in the baby’s environment

• Then a symbol or the word “mama” will provoke the image of their mom

• At about 18 months, the baby will use “mama” to refer to mom even when she’s not there

• Around 12 months, children produce their first true words

• By 18 months, children can usually produce 50 single words and begin to combine 2 words

• Jargon and babbling decrease during this time

  • Red flag if jargon doesn’t decrease after 18 months

• By age 2, a toddler has an expressive vocabulary of 150-300 words

• Early word combinations follow predictable patterns

  • agents come before actions and actions come before objects

    • Example: “mommy eat”, “eat cookie” etc.

Phonological Processes

• Phonological processes: children reduce and simplify words to forms that they are able to say

• Final Consonant Deletion: reducing the consonant-vowel-consonant structure of most words to a more familiar consonant-vowel structure

  • “cat” becomes “ca_”

• Phonological processes typically recede by age 4

  • Red flag if phonological processes don’t recede by 4 years

The Preschool Processes

• By age 3, a child’s vocabulary is now 900 words

• By age 4, a child’s vocabulary is 1500 words

• During this time, the emphasis of language development shifts from pragmatics & semantics to language form (syntax and morphology)

  • Pragmatics: language use in social contexts

  • Semantics: vocabulary knowledge & use

  • Syntax: grammar

  • Morphology: order of words

Syntax & Morphology

• At age 2, children produce short 2-4 word phrases/sentences

• At age 3, the word order rules used by younger children form the basis for more elaborate grammar

  • Now most children’s utterances contain a subject and verb

• By age 5, 90% of adult syntax is acquired

  • Children at this time are using compound sentences and dependent clauses

  • EXAMPLE OF SYNTACTIC PROGRESS:

    • Toddler: “No cookie”

    • 2-3-ish: “Doggie no eat”

    • Preschool: “mommy can’t catch me”

• For the English-speaking preschooler, language becomes more complex as it becomes longer

• This is clinically measured by calculating the Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) of a child’s language.

• The child’s MLU may be compared to normal data for their age group to note any significant discrepancies that may indicate a language skill delay or disorder

Speech During the Preschool Years

• By age 3, most children have mastered vowel sounds and the consonants p,m,h,n,w,b,k,g,d

• By age 4, children have added t,f,”y”

  • At least 50% of 4-year-olds say /r,l,s,”sh”,”ch”, z/

• Children with neuromuscular problems, sensory deficits, perceptual problems, or poor learning skills will have difficulty acquiring all the sounds of English.