1 Babies and the early years

To understand literacy skills, we would like you to start by thinking about how babies learn to communicate.

Figure 1 A baby using sign language

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This is a photograph of a baby using sign language. She is holding one hand with the palm flat and the fingers outstretched, and is touching it with two fingers from the other hand.

Figure 1 A baby using sign language

It is well known that babies want to communicate with other people and they move quickly from communicating through crying and making noises to saying recognisable words. The following extract taken from the Words for Life [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] website shows how quickly babies move on from those initial communications to saying their first word, then on to speaking their first sentence.

Activity 1

Timing: Allow about 20 minutes

Download this video clip.Video player: nnco_ta_s2_t1_vid001_babies_communication-320x176.mp4

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Transcript

Babies’ communication

James

James Description:

Baby James is lying in a chair looking at his Mother who has eye contact with him and is talking to him and smiling. She sometimes holds his hands and James moves his head towards her and gurgles.

James smiles at his Mother and moves his body as though he is trying to reach out to her. James has lolled to one side, still maintaining eye contact with his Mother who gently moves him upright.

As his Mother talks gently to him, James smiles in response. James is aware of the happiness in his Mother’s voice by gurgling and smiling.

Narrator/Expert 1

The behaviour of the baby is exceedingly complex it is inconceivable that that patterning has been learnt or trained. The real difference between this and any learning theory is the idea that there is an inborn capacity to communicate as a human being.

Voice-over

What about the lovely smile then?

Narrator/Expert 1

The smile itself is a kind of behaviour that can’t have any effect on the world…except through someone else perceiving her. It does express feeling. So babies are expressing the same kinds of feeling as the mother who reflects the affections and smiles back at the baby, but it is important to realise that it’s only part of the whole complex of body behaviour of the mother. The quality of her voice, the gentleness and softness of it expresses the same feelings. In fact you can actually hear a smile in the voice, because it changes the physical quality of the sound.

Alice

Alice Description:

Alice is lying on her back on a baby changing mat and is looking at her Mother who is leaning over her. Alice responds to her Mother’s voice by moving her arms and gurgling. Alice also moves her body.

Alice waves her arms in the air and is quite active. Alice is looking at her Mother at all times. When her Mother asks Alice should she answer the door as the bell has rung, Alice squeals as though in response to the question.

Alice squeals again as her Mother continues to pose questions and moves her arms and body.

Sebastian

Sebastian Description:

Sebastian’s Mother is holding him so that his face is directly opposite hers. She rubs her head against his face and upper body. The Mother makes happy cooing noises and Sebastian mimics her in response.

David

David Description:

David is sitting upright on a play mat with his Mother holding on to him so he doesn’t fall. He is actively looking at his surroundings. His Mother watches him all the time and speaks to him gently. David continues to look around and babbles back.

Voice-over

Detailed analysis of sequences like this has shown that the mother closely watches the baby and builds on the responses she sees.

Rebecca

Rebecca Description:

Rebecca is sitting on her Mother’s knee and is using both hands to drink from a feeding cup. Her Mother talks to her, all the time praising Rebecca for drinking unaided. Rebecca looks around all the time.

Voice-over

It’s clear that both mother and child are enjoying these exchanges. How important are they for language development?

Narrator/Expert 2

If we watch a young baby for example sitting on mother’s lap, we can see the pleasure that both of them gain from this interaction. The eye contact between them, the baby will gurgle for example. The mother probably copies those gurgles or maybe copies the mouth shapes and the expression on the baby’ face they even begin in a very rudimentary way to take turns.

Voice-over

Turn-taking games like ‘peek a boo’ are widely found in Western culture. They are thought to give children valuable experience of being involved in an exchange which has many of the characteristics of conversation. Each person’s turn depends on the preceding turn and there is a shared understanding of the direction and purpose of the game.

End transcript

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We would like you to watch this short video clip of babies communicating with their parents. While you are watching, make a note of the facial expressions of the babies.

• What kind of emotions do you think they are expressing?

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Comment

Was it easy for you to identify the different facial or body expressions and attach an emotion to them? Certainly, happiness is quite easy to spot, but what about something like ‘anticipation’? Did you think that some babies showed more of one emotion than others?

Did you notice how attentive James was, keeping his eyes on his mother’s face? Alice was very vocal and communicative. Rebecca seemed to be anticipating the toy popping out and got quite excited while waiting. Sebastian made eye contact and mouth movements to his mother, and David babbled away and initiated frequent conversations.

It was easy to see how the older babies initiated communication. David, for example, was quite vocal and Rebecca was very demonstrative, waving her arms and bouncing up and down. Sometimes it may not be clear that a baby is actually starting communication rather than responding to something an adult has started off with them.

But did you notice, towards the beginning of the clip, how James, who was only 10 weeks old, raised both hands and made mouthing movements and again raised his hand at the end? Although these kinds of movements could be thought of as largely uncontrolled, researchers have found them common and predictable enough to conclude that even babies of this age initiate communication.

Interaction with adults is an important stage in the development of a baby’s communication skills. The babies in the video clip were having conversations with their mothers – for example, what Alice’s mother was saying when showing her the doll. This kind of talking – where there is exaggerated use of words and syllables and much repetition – is called ‘parentese’ by child psychologists. It is important because it introduces babies to patterns in their language and establishes familiar routines for them.

In their long-term study analysing the verbal interactions between parents and their children, Hart and Risley (1999, cited in Roberts, 2009) identified five specific ways that parents talked to children that consistently had the most positive impact on the children’s development, and their long-term verbal ability:

It seems clear from these five bullet points that if you talk to children in an encouraging, informative and positive manner, you are helping them to develop the all-important skills of speaking and listening. It is these skills that help children to develop language and learn to read.

You have seen how adults can play a key role in a child’s development from a very young age and there is no reason why the five specific ways of talking to children (identified above) should not form the basis of good practice at all levels of education.