Infant Babbling and Social Skills Development

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Specific Research Question of the Project
Background and Literature Review
Hypothesis of Research
Methodology of Research
Predictions and Conclusions
Reference List

Introduction

There are a number of milestones with the help of which child development may be studied and evaluated from a variety of perspectives. The necessity to comprehend, evaluate, and meet the needs of every child is one of the primary goals of an adult. Taking into consideration parental challenges and abilities, it becomes clear that the period from the child’s birth to 12 months is the hardest time when children are unable to express their thoughts properly, and parents are not always able to define the problem and the child’s need. This is why it is crucially important to promote the development of language researches among children under 6-12 months.

Babbling is considered to be an important stage of a child’s language and social development. On the one hand, babbling promotes communication between a child and another person on a social level. On the other hand, babbling is regarded to be the primary language of a child (Sternberg & Mio, 2008).

Due to such a complex nature of babbling and a child’s social development, a certain attention to babbling and the purposes of this vocal process has to be paid in order to contribute such spheres like child cognitive development and vocal abilities. Children start developing their language when they can recognize some vocal cords and the issues which may foster communication with other people around, and in order to help a child succeed in this development, the nature of babbling should be recognized.

Specific Research Question of the Project

In this paper, the answer to one particular question should be given after special steps and methods are considered. If babbling defines the future vocal abilities of a child, is it possible to influence the development of babbling in children due to some outside factors during the first year of life and promote better comprehension of the world?

Background and Literature Review

The theme of infant vocal development and babbling, in particular, has been already investigated by a number of researchers. Goldstein & Schwade (2008) admit that vocal abilities among children under the age of 6-12 months are able to change dramatically from time to time. A kind of rapid progress is inherent to children, and parents, in their turn, have to react to these activities and demands.

In spite of the fact that babbling is a normal stage in a child’s development that does not depend on some cultural or racial backgrounds, there are still a number of aspects that have to be taken into account. Hsu, Fogel, & Cooper (2000) focus on several types of child’s vocalizations like infant cries, grunts, and laughter and prove that the vast majority of children may demonstrate successful achievements in producing different sounds in case non-speech-like sounds are reduced.

The progress of a child’s babbling is evident indeed during the first year of life: numerous changes and pauses are observed in an infant’s babbling that proves the fact that children are able to comprehend their possibilities to influence the activities around and cause some reactions from other people (Watts, Duncan, & Cockcroft, 2009). So, the previous investigations show that babbling has its own reasons and purposes, this is why it is crucially important to analyze this vocal activity under various conditions as well as the child’s reaction to some variables.

Before the investigation of an infant’s babbling begins, it is necessary to admit that babbling contains to be a kind of preferential production of the child (Sternberg & Mio), this is why the evaluation of how and why a child may start babble depends on a variety of outside sources which have to be also integrated. Finally, the achievements demonstrated by Slater & Lewis (2006) help to realize that babbling is characterized by both repetitions of speech sounds and hands’ movements. The use of gestures also helps to share necessary information and explain the main idea that is in the child’s head.

Taking into consideration all these investigations and suggestions, it is possible to admit that child’s language and social development depends on a variety of outside factors, and the way how parents may assist a child with developing his/her language skills predetermines the way of how social development may occur.

Hypothesis of Research

In fact, the challenges and the problems which adults have to face during the child’s development process are numerous, and it is hard to predict what kind of problem should be expected. This is why it seems to be rational to evaluate various conditions of infant language and social development and define the factors which may certainly improve the process. In this paper, it is important to prove that babbling has not only some linguistic basics. There are many outside factors that may predetermine an infant’s babbling and influence its development in various ways. Parents and caregivers are responsible for the organization of an appropriate environment that defines the level of an infant’s language development as well as the abilities to succeed in social communications.

Methodology of Research

To succeed in the project under consideration and develop an appropriate idea in accordance with the hypothesis offered, it is crucially important to use both qualitative and quantitative methods of investigation. Qualitative methods such as the attraction of several children, parents, and caregivers promote the researcher with a chance to define how various backgrounds may be adapted to the same conditions. The more different people are involved in the project, the more chances to get appropriate results to appear. One of the weak sides of the investigation is the inability to consider the abilities of all students, for example, those who have some hearing or visual disabilities, still, the evaluation of general factors seems to be an effective step.

Babbling is language acquisition, however, it may be predetermined by such outside factors as a parental interruption in a child’s life, various nature of TV programs, caregiver frequency, and the level of communication offered by people around. All these factors may be evaluated with the help of several qualitative methods. First, it is possible to create the same conditions for different infants and follow their reactions to what is happening. Second, parents should support their children with the same amount of care and communication so that the quality of conditions is similar to all participants of the experiment.

Now, it is time to define the participants and conditions of the experiment.

Participants: all children are under the age of 5-12 months; 5 children who have two parents and a constant caregiver, 5 children who have one parent only, and 3 children with some disabilities (it does not matter how many parents such child has). Parent-infant caregiving routine: interaction with parents should be limited, still, interaction with the object has its own limitations considering how much time is offered to the experiment.

Criteria according to which the results will be evaluated are the following: child’s reaction to changes, frequency of babbling, type of outside source that cause infant’s babbling, and type of appreciation offered to a child.

Predictions and Conclusions

The quality of treatment to a child between 5 and 12 months of life is rather important. The way of how parents are able to interact with their children influences the level of an infant’s social and language development. In this paper, certain attention has to be paid to the infant’s babbling and the nature of outside factors that may change this activity. The chosen investigation of outside factors should help parents, caregivers, and psychologists to comprehend the mechanism of a child’s babbling and the reasons why this activity has to be developed at such young age.

The point is that child’s development is a complicated process, and the way of how adults are able to organize it may considerably influence their current and future communication with children. Identification of reactions demonstrated by different children under different conditions should determine the most important factors which may support language and social development.

Children’s abilities to express their thoughts are progressive indeed: a not long time ago, all they can do is to cry to inform people about some inconveniences, hunger, or necessity of attention. When a child is 12 months, the use of babbling is more frequent and more effective. Parents and children should be able to develop their own language and communication means which are based on outside factors defined in the research under consideration.

Reference List

Goldstein, M.H. & Schwade, J.A. (2008). Social feedback to infants’ babbling facilitates rapid phonological learning. Psychological Science, 19(5), 515-523.

Hsu, H.C., Fogel, A., & Cooper, R.B. (2000). Infant vocal development during the first 6 months: Speech quality and melodic complexity. Infant and Child Development, 9, 1-16.

Slater, A. & Lewis, M. (2008). Introduction to Infant Development. New York: Oxford University Press.

Sternberg, R.J. & Mio, J. (2008). Cognitive Psychology. Belmont: Cengage Learning.

Watts, J., Duncan, N., & Cockcroft, K. (2009). Developmental Psychology. Cape Town: Juta and Company Ltd.

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