TY - JOUR
T1 - “Go, go, go!” Mothers’ verbs align with infants’ locomotion
AU - West, Kelsey L.
AU - Saleh, Annissa N.
AU - Adolph, Karen E.
AU - Tamis-LeMonda, Catherine S.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was supported by a grant from the LEGO Foundation to Catherine S. Tamis‐LeMonda and Karen E. Adolph, a postdoctoral training grant from the National Institute of Health to Kelsey L. West (F32 DC017903), and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (R37 HD033486, R01 HD094830). Portions of this work were presented at the Society for Research in Child Development in April 2021 and the International Congress of Infant Studies in July 2022.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Caregivers often tailor their language to infants’ ongoing actions (e.g., “are you stacking the blocks?”). When infants develop new motor skills, do caregivers show concomitant changes in their language input? We tested whether the use of verbs that refer to locomotor actions (e.g., “come,” “bring,” “walk”) differed for mothers of 13-month-old crawling (N = 16) and walking infants (N = 16), and mothers of 18-month-old experienced walkers (N = 16). Mothers directed twice as many locomotor verbs to walkers compared to same-age crawlers, but mothers’ locomotor verbs were similar for younger and older walkers. In real-time, mothers’ use of locomotor verbs was dense when infants were locomoting, and sparse when infants were stationary, regardless of infants’ crawler/walker status. Consequently, infants who spent more time in motion received more locomotor verbs compared to infants who moved less frequently. Findings indicate that infants’ motor skills guide their in-the-moment behaviors, which in turn shape the language they receive from caregivers. Research Highlights: Infants’ motor skills guide their in-the-moment behaviors, which in turn shape the language they receive from caregivers. Mothers directed more frequent and diverse verbs that referenced locomotion (e.g., “come,” “go,” “bring”) to walking infants compared to same-aged crawling infants. Mothers’ locomotor verbs were temporally dense when infants locomoted and sparse when infants were stationary, regardless of whether infants could walk or only crawl.
AB - Caregivers often tailor their language to infants’ ongoing actions (e.g., “are you stacking the blocks?”). When infants develop new motor skills, do caregivers show concomitant changes in their language input? We tested whether the use of verbs that refer to locomotor actions (e.g., “come,” “bring,” “walk”) differed for mothers of 13-month-old crawling (N = 16) and walking infants (N = 16), and mothers of 18-month-old experienced walkers (N = 16). Mothers directed twice as many locomotor verbs to walkers compared to same-age crawlers, but mothers’ locomotor verbs were similar for younger and older walkers. In real-time, mothers’ use of locomotor verbs was dense when infants were locomoting, and sparse when infants were stationary, regardless of infants’ crawler/walker status. Consequently, infants who spent more time in motion received more locomotor verbs compared to infants who moved less frequently. Findings indicate that infants’ motor skills guide their in-the-moment behaviors, which in turn shape the language they receive from caregivers. Research Highlights: Infants’ motor skills guide their in-the-moment behaviors, which in turn shape the language they receive from caregivers. Mothers directed more frequent and diverse verbs that referenced locomotion (e.g., “come,” “go,” “bring”) to walking infants compared to same-aged crawling infants. Mothers’ locomotor verbs were temporally dense when infants locomoted and sparse when infants were stationary, regardless of whether infants could walk or only crawl.
KW - developmental cascades
KW - dyadic interactions
KW - language input
KW - motor development
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U2 - 10.1111/desc.13397
DO - 10.1111/desc.13397
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85153388159
SN - 1363-755X
JO - Developmental science
JF - Developmental science
ER -