Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-hc48f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-03T15:16:40.448Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Infant gaze following and pointing predict accelerated vocabulary growth through two years of age: a longitudinal, growth curve modeling study*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 January 2008

RECHELE BROOKS  and
ANDREW N. MELTZOFF
RECHELE BROOKS*
Affiliation:
University of Washington
ANDREW N. MELTZOFF
Affiliation:
University of Washington
*
Address for correspondence: Rechele Brooks, University of Washington, Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences, Box 357988, Seattle, WA 98195-7988. e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We found that infant gaze following and pointing predicts subsequent language development. At ages 0 ; 10 or 0 ; 11, infants saw an adult turn to look at an object in an experimental setting. Productive vocabulary was assessed longitudinally through two years of age. Growth curve modeling showed that infants who gaze followed and looked longer at the target object had significantly faster vocabulary growth than infants with shorter looks, even with maternal education controlled; adding infant pointing strengthened the model. We highlight the role of social cognition in word learning and emphasize the communicative-referential functions of early gaze following and pointing.

Type
Brief Research Report
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , February 2008 , pp. 207 - 220
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Baldwin, D. A. (1991). Infants' contribution to the achievement of joint reference. Child Development 62, 875–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baldwin, D. A. (1995). Understanding the link between joint attention and language. In Moore, C. & Dunham, P. J. (eds) Joint attention: Its origins and role in development, 131–58. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Bates, E., Benigni, L., Bretherton, I., Camaioni, L. & Volterra, V. (1979). The emergence of symbols: Cognition and communication in infancy. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Brooks, R. & Meltzoff, A. N. (2002). The importance of eyes: How infants interpret adult looking behavior. Developmental Psychology 38, 958–66.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Brooks, R. & Meltzoff, A. N. (2005). The development of gaze following and its relation to language. Developmental Science 8, 535–43.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bruner, J. (1983). Child's talk: Learning to use language. New York: Norton.Google Scholar
Camaioni, L., Perucchini, P., Bellagamba, F. & Colonnesi, C. (2004). The role of declarative pointing in developing a theory of mind. Infancy 5, 291–308.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carpenter, M., Nagell, K. & Tomasello, M. (1998). Social cognition, joint attention, and communicative competence from 9 to 15 months of age. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 63(4) (Serial No. 255).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Colombo, J., Shaddy, D. J., Richman, W. A., Maikranz, J. M. & Blaga, O. M. (2004). The developmental course of habituation in infancy and preschool outcome. Infancy 5, 1–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Corkum, V. & Moore, C. (1998). The origins of joint visual attention in infants. Developmental Psychology 34, 28–38.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dale, P. S., Price, T. S., Bishop, D. V. M. & Plomin, R. (2003). Outcomes of early language delay: I. Predicting persistent and transient language difficulties at 3 and 4 years. Journal of Speech, Language, and Hearing Research 46, 544–60.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Fenson, L., Marchman, V. A., Thal, D., Dale, P. S., Bates, E. & Reznick, J. S. (2007). The MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories user's guide and technical manual, 2nd ed. Baltimore, MD: Brookes.Google Scholar
Golinkoff, R. M., Hirsh-Pasek, K., Bloom, L., Smith, L. B., Woodward, A. L., Akhtar, N., Tomasello, M. & Hollich, G. (2000). Becoming a word learner: A debate on lexical acquisition. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gopnik, A. & Meltzoff, A. N. (1987). The development of categorization in the second year and its relation to other cognitive and linguistic developments. Child Development 58, 1523–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoff, E. (2006). How social contexts support and shape language development. Developmental Review 26, 55–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hollich, G., Hirsh-Pasek, K. & Golinkoff, R. M. (2000). Breaking the language barrier: An emergentist coalition model for the origins of word learning. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 65(3) (Serial No. 262).Google ScholarPubMed
Kuhl, P. K., Conboy, B. T., Padden, D., Nelson, T. & Pruitt, J. (2005). Early speech perception and later language development: Implications for the “critical period.” Language Learning and Development 1, 237–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meltzoff, A. N. & Brooks, R. (2007). Eyes wide shut: The importance of eyes in infant gaze-following and understanding other minds. In Flom, R., Lee, K. & Muir, D. (eds) Gaze following: Its development and significance, 217–41. Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Morales, M., Mundy, P., Delgado, C. E. F., Yale, M., Neal, R. & Schwartz, H. K. (2000). Gaze following, temperament, and language development in 6-month-olds: A replication and extension. Infant Behavior & Development 23, 231–6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mundy, P., Block, J., Delgado, C., Pomares, Y., Van Hecke, A. V. & Parlade, M. V. (2007). Individual differences and the development of joint attention in infancy. Child Development 78, 938–54.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Newman, R., Ratner, N. B., Jusczyk, A. M., Jusczyk, P. W. & Dow, K. A. (2006). Infants' early ability to segment the conversational speech signal predicts later language. A retrospective analysis. Developmental Psychology 42, 643–55.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Raudenbush, S. W. & Bryk, A. S. (2002). Hierarchical linear models: Applications and data analysis methods, 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.Google Scholar
Singer, J. D. & Willett, J. B. (2003). Applied longitudinal data analysis: Modeling change and event outcome. New York: Oxford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tomasello, M. (2003). Constructing a language: A usage-based theory of language acquisition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Woodward, A. L. (2003). Infants' developing understanding of the link between looker and object. Developmental Science 6, 297–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar