Infant prosodic expressions in mother-infant communication

Prosody, generally defined as any perceivable modulation of duration, pitch or loudness in the voice that conveys meaning, has been identified as part of the linguistic system, or compared with the sound system of Western classical music. This thesis proposes a different conception, namely that prosody is a phenomenon of human expression that precedes, and to a certain extent determines the form and function of utterances in any particular language or music system. Findings from studies of phylogenesis and ontogenesis are presented in favour of this definition. Consequently, prosody of infant vocal expressions, which are made by individuals who have not yet developed either language or musical skills, is investigated as a phenomenon in itself, with its own rules. Recognising theoretical and methodological deficiencies in the linguistic and the Piagetian approaches to the development of infant prosodic expressions, this thesis supports the view that the origins of language are to be sought in the expressive dialogues between the mother and her prelinguistic child that are generated by intuitive motives for communication. Furthermore, infant vocalisations are considered as part of a system of communication constituted by all expressive modalities. Thus, the aim is to investigate the role of infant prosodic expressions in conveying emotions and communicative functions in relation to the accompanying non vocal-behaviours. A crossectional Pilot Study involving 16 infants aged 26 to 56 weeks and their mothers was undertaken to help in the design of the Main Study. The Main Study became a case description of two first born infants and their mothers; a boy (Robin) and a girl (Julie) both aged 30 weeks at the beginning of the study. The infants were filmed in their home every fortnight for five months in a structured naturalistic setting which included the following conditions: mother-infant free-play with their own toys, mother-infant play without using objects, the infant playing alone, motherinfant play with objects provided by the researcher, a 'car task' for eliciting cooperative play, and the mother staying unresponsive. Each filming session lasted approximately thirty minutes. In order to get an insight into the infants' 'meaning potential' expressed in their vocalisations, the mothers were asked to visit the department sometime in the interval between two filming sessions and, while watching the most recent video, to report what they felt their infant was conveyingif anything- in each vocalisation. Three types of analysis were carried out: a) An Analysis of Prosody - An attempt was made to obtain an objective, and not linguistically based account of infant prosodic features. First measurements were obtained of the duration and the fundamental frequency curve of each vocalisation by means of a computer programme for sound analysis. The values of fundamental frequency were then logarithmically transformed into a semitone scale in order to obtain measurements more sensitive to the mother's perception. b) A Functional Micro-Analysis of Non-Vocal Behaviours from Videos - The non vocal behaviours of mother and infant related with each vocalisation were codified without sound to examine to what extent the mothers relied for their interpretations on non-vocal behaviours accompanying vocalisations. c) An Analysis of the Mothers' Interpretations - The infants' messages were defined as perceived by their mother. The corpus comprised 713 vocalisations (322 for the boy and 391 for the girl) selected from a corpus of 864, and 143 minutes of video recording (64 for the boy and 79 for the girl). Correlations between the above three assessments were specified through statistical analysis. The findings from both infants indicate that between seven and eleven months prosodic patterns are not related one to one with particular messages. Rather, prosody distinguishes between groups of messages conveying features of psychological motivation, such as 'emotional', 'interpersonal', 'referential', 'assertive' or 'receptive'. Individual messages belonging to the same message group according to the analysis of prosody, are distinguished on the basis of the accompanying nonvocal behaviours. Before nine months, 'interpersonal' vocalisations display more 'alerting' prosodic patterns than 'referential' vocalisations. After nine months prosodic patterns in Robin's vocalisations differentiate between 'assertive' and 'receptive' messages, the former being expressed by more 'alerting' prosodic patterns than the latter. This distinction reflects a better Self-Other awareness. On the other hand, Julie's vocalisations occurring in situations of 'Joint Interest' display different prosodic patterns from her vocalisations uttered in situations of 'Converging Interest'. These changes in the role infant prosody reflect developments in the infants' motivational organisation which will lead to a more efficient control of intersubjective orientation and shared attention to the environment. Moreover, it was demonstrated that new forms of prosodic expression occur in psychologically mature situations, while the psychologically novel situations are expressed by mature prosodic forms. The above results suggest that at the threshold to language, prosody does not primarily serve identifiable linguistic functions. Rather, in spite of individual differences in form of their vocalisations, both infants use prosody in combination with other modalities as part of an expressive system, that conveys information about their motives. In this way prosody facilitates intersubjective and later cooperative communication, on which language development is built. To what extent such prelinguistic prosodic patterns are similar in form to those of the target language is a crucial issue for further investigation

Emotion and imitation in early infant-parent interaction: a longitudinal and cross-cultural study

Following a brief introduction to the diverse views on the motives for imitation, a review of the literature is presented covering the following topics: early theories and observations concerning the origin and development of human imitation in infancy; recent theoretical models that have emerged from experimental studies of infant imitation and from naturalistic studies of imitation in infant -mother communication; and traditional and recent theoretical and empirical approaches to imitative phenomena in infant -father interaction. This review leads to the following conclusions:a) The failure of attempts to confirm certain ideas, hypotheses and suggestions built into the theories and strategies of earlier studies does not detract from their great contribution, which set the foundations upon which recent research is carried forward.b) Despite the different theoretical frameworks and the lack of a consensus as to the best method for investigating early imitative phenomena in experimental settings, neonatal imitation is now accepted as a fact.c) Imitative phenomena found in empirical studies focusing on infant -father interaction, as well as the relevant theoretical interpretations, are characterised by a contradiction; theory predicts bidirectional regulations, but studies employ an empirical approach that favours the view that regulation is only on the parental side.In this investigation, observations were made of thirty infants, fifteen from Greece and fifteen from Scotland. All were seen every 15 days interacting with their mothers and with their fathers at home, from the 8th to the 24th week of life. A total of 540 home recordings were made. Units of interaction that contained imitative episodes were subjected to microanalysis with the aid of specialized software, in a multi -media system that provides the capability for detection, recording, timing and signal analysis of the variables under consideration to an accuracy of 1 /25th of a second.The main findings may be summarised as follows: a) Imitation was evident, as early as the 8th week, irrespective of the country, the parent or the infant's sex. b) Cultural differences, reflecting the predominance of non -vocal and vocal imitative expressive behaviour in the two countries, were found. c) The developmental course of early imitative expressive behaviours was typically non -linear. d) Turn-taking imitative exchanges predominated over co-actions. e) Parents were found to imitate their infants more than vice versa. f) Regulation of emotion, either in the sense of emotional matching or of emotional attunement, proved to be the underlying motivating principle for both parental and infant imitations.The implications of these findings for understanding universal intersubjective nature of early imitation in infant -father and infant-mother interactions are discussed

The importance of caregiver-child interactions for the survival and healthy development of children : implications for intervention.

Thesis (M.A.)- University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2002.The quality of early infant-caregiver interactions determines the path of an infant's social, cognitive and emotional development. Theoretical and empirical evidence supporting this claim is reviewed, and the implications for early relationship-focussed interventions are considered. The study focuses on infants from birth to three years of age. Developmental psychology research findings are presented, and the role of risk and protective factors in planning preventative interventions are discussed. Recommendations are made for developing a centre-based relationship-enhancing early intervention program for infants and their depressed caregivers. The program is intended for implementation in a rural or periurban South African Primary Health Care setting

The Biological Origins of Automated Patterns of Human Interaction

The biological origins of automated patterns of human interaction are explored. Automated patterns of interaction are distinguished from deliberate patterns. Automated patterns consist of two particular types: stimulation regulation and emotional responsiveness. Evidence for the biological origins of these patterns is obtained by studying the early interactions of infants and neonates, surveying the ethological parallels, exploring the evolutionary adaptiveness of the specific patterns, and ascertaining physiological, psychopharmacological, and brain mechanisms responsible for the patterns. Although circumstantial, the case for a biological basis for stimulation regulation and emotional responsiveness is very suggestive

The Awakening and Growth of the Human Infant: A Telecourse Study Guide for Infant Mental Health Practitioners

This Study Guide is an accompaniment to The Awakening and Growth of the Human: Studies in Infant Mental Health , a series of 10 videotapes, produced and narrated by Mr. Michael Trout. The Infant Mental Health Telecourse materials consist of the Study Guide, the Trout Videotapes, and 30 highly recommended readings on infant mental health topics. An Instructor\u27s Guide is available.https://digitalcommons.usm.maine.edu/facbooks/1260/thumbnail.jp

Expressive social exchange between humans and robots

Thesis (Sc.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2000.Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-264).Sociable humanoid robots are natural and intuitive for people to communicate with and to teach. We present recent advances in building an autonomous humanoid robot, Kismet, that can engage humans in expressive social interaction. We outline a set of design issues and a framework that we have found to be of particular importance for sociable robots. Having a human-in-the-loop places significant social constraints on how the robot aesthetically appears, how its sensors are configured, its quality of movement, and its behavior. Inspired by infant social development, psychology, ethology, and evolutionary perspectives, this work integrates theories and concepts from these diverse viewpoints to enable Kismet to enter into natural and intuitive social interaction with a human caregiver, reminiscent of parent-infant exchanges. Kismet perceives a variety of natural social cues from visual and auditory channels, and delivers social signals to people through gaze direction, facial expression, body posture, and vocalizations. We present the implementation of Kismet's social competencies and evaluate each with respect to: 1) the ability of naive subjects to read and interpret the robot's social cues, 2) the robot's ability to perceive and appropriately respond to naturally offered social cues, 3) the robot's ability to elicit interaction scenarios that afford rich learning potential, and 4) how this produces a rich, flexible, dynamic interaction that is physical, affective, and social. Numerous studies with naive human subjects are described that provide the data upon which we base our evaluations.by Cynthia L. Breazeal.Sc.D

Empathy, gender, and training as factors in the identification of cry-signal patterns of infants

Infant/caregiver attachment is a developmental process that depends on the caregiver's ability to recognize and correctly respond to the needs of an infant. One of the primary ways an infant expresses needs is through its cry-signal. Wasz-Hockert et al. (1964a) have identified four infant cry-signals (birth, hunger, pain, and pleasure). They have constructed a checklist method for scoring the responses of adults to these cry-signals, plus an overall cry-signal (the total score of the four cry-signals), Wasz-Hockert et al. (1964a, 1964b) found that experienced males and females could recognize cry-signals more accurately than their inexperienced counterparts. However, these studies did not consider the subject's background apart from experience in child care. The present study was an effort to determine how various factors, namely empathy, gender and training, affect a person's ability to correctly identify cry-signals

An Occupational Therapy Parent Education Handbook: Parenting in the NICU

Parents often feel overwhelmed by their premature infant\u27s fragile medical state and intimidated by the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) environment. The birth of a premature infant is a stressful event for parents because they are coping with their newborn facing life threatening immaturity and its possible consequences, such as handicap or even death. Due to the premature infant\u27s fragile medical state parents often feel their infant does not belong to them but rather to the healthcare staff. A parent\u27s lack of involvement in their infant\u27s care is a major source of stress, feelings of dis empowerment and a lack of confidence in their parenting abilities (Franck & Spencer, 2003). The parental lack of involvement, in the initial weeks of the infant\u27s hospitalization, is a primary factor that can contribute to high-risk parenting. High-risk parents often demonstrate a hesitancy to develop a close relationship with their infant due to their difficulty in coping with their feelings and emotions related to their infant\u27s fragile medical state. This can have a significant impact on the early formation of a relationship between the infant and parents. Failure to form an attachment during the first few weeks and months, or disruption of the attachment process, leads to a higher risk of abuse and neglect of the dependent infant (Aucott, 2002, p.303). Both the parents\u27 and infant\u27s quality of life is dependent upon the parents\u27 confidence in their parental roles, adaptation abilities and their positive relationships with the healthcare providers of their premature infant. It is essential that the parent be involved, be provided resources and be informed about each step in the care of their infant. According to Hurst (2002) families spend a median of 20 hours in the first week after birth seeking information, the equivalent to a part time job. Families desired more information than was provided (p. 42). The purpose of this scholarly project was to create a resource for parents of infant\u27s born prematurely within the NICU setting. An Occupational Therapy Parent Education Handbook: Parenting in the NICU is offered in an easy to read format focusing on psychological, physical and emotional components of having an infant in the NICU. The methodology used includes: a review of the literature, observation in a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) environment and discussions with parents who have experienced having an infant in the NICU. The researchers also met with therapists who currently work within the NICU setting and toured the NICU environment while meeting the various staff who work within this area. Based on the information gathered there is a need for additional resources to be provided for parents of premature infants in the NICU. The following results were discovered after extensive research: » There is a lack of resources available for new parents of infants in the NICU » There is a lack of information and resources available to parents during the infant\u27s transition home and into early infancy » There is a lack of education of NICU parents regarding what their infant is going through and what they can expect during this difficult time There is a need for a resource to be available to parents\u27 who have infants born prematurely in the NICU setting that is offered in an easy-to- read and accessible format. An Occupational Therapy Parent Education Handbook: Parenting in the NICU is designed to be a guide and offer support to ease the stress and overwhelming feelings new parents experience when their infants are born within the NICU setting

Sensibilisation aux émotions et formation de représentations par biofeedback social - Une révision du modèle et ses implications cliniques

Peu différenciées à la naissance, les émotions deviendraient intelligibles en étant élevées à la conscience par le développement d’une sensibilité aux sensations internes accompagnant l’émotion, sa représentation et sa symbolisation (Gergely & Watson, 1996). La théorie du miroir affectif-parental du biofeedback social de Gergely & Watson (1996), poussée plus loin par Fonagy, Gergely, Jurist et Target (2002), explique comment une interaction de biofeedback social complexe, innée, et probablement implicite, s’établit entre parent et nouveau-né pour aider ce dernier à différencier les somatosensations accompagnant l’expérience d’une émotion, au travers d’un comportement parental de miroir. Le but de cette thèse est de réviser cette théorie, et plus particulièrement l’hypothèse du miroir « marqué » (markedness), qui serait nécessaire pour dissocier le miroir parental du parent, et permettre l’appropriation de son contenu informationnel par l’enfant. Ce processus de sensibilisation est conçu comme partie intégrante du travail de symbolisation des émotions chez les enfants autant que chez les adultes. Cependant, le miroir marqué se manifestant par une expression exagérée ou « voix de bébé » (motherese) nécessiterait l’utilisation par le thérapeute d’une « voix de patient » (therapese) (Fonagy, 2010) pour être appliqué à la psychothérapie adulte, une proposition difficile à soutenir. La révision examine comment la sensibilisation d’une émotion est accomplie : par un mécanisme d’internalisation nécessitant un miroir « marqué » ou par un mécanisme de détection de la contingence de l’enfant. Elle démontre que le détecteur de contingence du nouveau-né (d’un fonctionnement semblable au système d’entraînement par biofeedback pour adultes) est le médiateur des fonctions de sensibilisation, de représentation, et de symbolisation de la ii sensation d’une émotion par ses processus de détection de la covariance-invariance, de la maximisation, et du contrôle contingent du miroir parental. Ces processus permettent à l’émotion de devenir consciente, que le miroir parental soit ‘marqué’ ou non. Le modèle révisé devient donc applicable à la thérapie des adultes. Une vignette clinique analysée à l’aide de la perspective du Boston Change Process Study Group sur le changement est utilisée pour contraster et illustrer les processus de sensibilisation et de symbolisation des émotions, et leur application à la psychothérapie adulte. Cette thèse considère les implications cliniques du nouveau modèle, et elle spécule sur les conséquences de difficultés parentales vis-à-vis de la disponibilité requise par les besoins de biofeedback social du nouveau-né, et sur les conséquences de traumatismes déconnectant des émotions déjà sensibilisées de leurs représentations. Finalement, elle suggère que le miroir sensible des émotions en thérapie puisse remédier à ces deux sortes de difficultés, et que le modèle puisse être utilisé concurremment à d’autres modèles du changement, en facilitant la génération d’états internes ressentis et symbolisés pouvant être utilisés pour communiquer avec soi-même et les autres pour la réparation de difficultés émotionnelles et relationnelles chez les enfants et les adultes.Undifferentiated at birth, emotions would become intelligible by being raised to consciousness through the development of sensitivity to the inner sensations accompanying the emotion, their representation and symbolization (Gergely & Watson, 1996). The social biofeedback theory of parental affect-mirroring of Gergely and Watson (1996), furthered by Fonagy, Gergely, Jurist and Target (2002), explains how these somatosensory signals are so important that a complex, probably implicit, and possibly innate social biofeedback interaction exists between caregiver and infant, where the latter learns to differentiate between emotions through the parent’s mirroring of his emotion expression. The aim of this thesis is to revise this theory, and more precisely the ‘markedness’ hypothesis, which would be necessary to dissociate the parental mirroring from the parent and allow appropriation of its informational content as pertaining to the infant. The process of sensitization to these sensations is conceived to be integral to the symbolization of emotions in children and adults. However, ‘motherese’, the singsong prosody of markedness hypothesized to be necessary to foster successful social biofeedback interactions between caregivers and infants, requires that therapists use ‘therapese’ in the clinical setting (Fonagy, 2010), a proposition difficult to reconcile with the therapy of adults. The revision investigates whether the sensitization and symbolization of an emotion is accomplished through an internalization mechanism requiring the ‘markedness’ hypothesis, or solely through social biofeedback mechanisms based on infant contingency detection. It demonstrates that the infant’s contingency detector (similarly to biofeedback training in adults) mediates the iv functions of sensitization, representation, and symbolization of an emotion through its processes of covariance-invariance detection, maximization, and the contingent control of the parental mirroring. It allows the emotion to be raised to consciousness, with the help of the parental mirror, whether it is ‘marked’ or not. The revised model thus becomes applicable to the therapy of adults. A clinical vignette analyzed with the Boston Change Process Study Group’s perspective on change is used to contrast and illustrate the processes of sensitization and representations of emotions, and their application in adult psychotherapy. The thesis considers the clinical implications of the new model and speculates on the consequences of parental difficulties with surrendering to the social biofeedback needs of the infant, and on the consequences of emotional trauma disconnecting sensitive emotion sensations from their representations. Finally, it suggest that both kinds of difficulties can be repaired through sensitive mirroring of emotions in therapy, and that the model might be used concurrently with other models of change, by facilitating the generation of felt and symbolized inner states that can be used for self and other communication in the repair of emotional and relational difficulties in children and adults