~Communication~ Brittanie Bennett

From birth infants have some idea of conversation. For example if someone is holding the baby and the baby is focusing on another person standing near them talking in a high pitch the infant initiates communication by eye contact with the interesting person and when they are finally bored they cut off the eye contact and look away. As infants grow they also start to focus more on what others around them are gazing at. Babies start to relize that what others are focusing on can provide them with information on how to communicate. When parents see their child looking at something they comment on it and the child begins to absorb what the parents say. This is called joint attention, when the childs attention is on the same thing as the adult, joint attention takes a big part in ealry language. Parents who take part in joint attention with thier child often see their infants and toddlers have a longer attention span. With this they are able to understand language more clearly, show physical gestures, and build vocabulary faster. Most parents are taking part in joint attention on a regualr and may not even relize it. When you play peek-a-boo and patty-cake it starts as a fun game but as it continues and the infants becomes a toddler they start to participate with us creating joint attention. This leads into the use of preverbal gestures that they have learned from others behavior. For example when you are holding your infant or toddler in one arm and making a bottle yours, and your childs attention is on the bottle, they might point at it and the mother would follow with Yes this is your ba-ba or bottle. Later they start to associate these gestures with words creating combinations.