TY - JOUR
T1 - Within arms reach
T2 - Physical proximity shapes mother-infant language exchanges in real-time
AU - Suarez-Rivera, Catalina
AU - Pinheiro-Mehta, Nicole
AU - Tamis-LeMonda, Catherine S.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023
PY - 2023/12
Y1 - 2023/12
N2 - During everyday interactions, mothers and infants achieve behavioral synchrony at multiple levels. The ebb-and-flow of mother-infant physical proximity may be a central type of synchrony that establishes a common ground for infant-mother interaction. However, the role of proximity in language exchanges is relatively unstudied, perhaps because structured tasks—the common setup for observing infant-caregiver interactions—establish proximity by design. We videorecorded 100 mothers (U.S. Hispanic N = 50, U.S. Non-Hispanic N = 50) and their 13- to 23-month-old infants during natural activity at home (1-to-2 h per dyad), transcribed mother and infant speech, and coded proximity continuously (i.e., infants and mother within arms reach). In both samples, dyads entered proximity in a bursty temporal pattern, with bouts of proximity interspersed with bouts of physical distance. As hypothesized, Non-Hispanic and Hispanic mothers produced more words and a greater variety of words when within arms reach than out of arms reach. Similarly, infants produced more utterances that contained words when close to mother than when not. However, infants babbled equally often regardless of proximity, generating abundant opportunities to play with sounds. Physical proximity expands opportunities for language exchanges and infants’ communicative word use, although babies accumulate massive practice babbling even when caregivers are not proximal.
AB - During everyday interactions, mothers and infants achieve behavioral synchrony at multiple levels. The ebb-and-flow of mother-infant physical proximity may be a central type of synchrony that establishes a common ground for infant-mother interaction. However, the role of proximity in language exchanges is relatively unstudied, perhaps because structured tasks—the common setup for observing infant-caregiver interactions—establish proximity by design. We videorecorded 100 mothers (U.S. Hispanic N = 50, U.S. Non-Hispanic N = 50) and their 13- to 23-month-old infants during natural activity at home (1-to-2 h per dyad), transcribed mother and infant speech, and coded proximity continuously (i.e., infants and mother within arms reach). In both samples, dyads entered proximity in a bursty temporal pattern, with bouts of proximity interspersed with bouts of physical distance. As hypothesized, Non-Hispanic and Hispanic mothers produced more words and a greater variety of words when within arms reach than out of arms reach. Similarly, infants produced more utterances that contained words when close to mother than when not. However, infants babbled equally often regardless of proximity, generating abundant opportunities to play with sounds. Physical proximity expands opportunities for language exchanges and infants’ communicative word use, although babies accumulate massive practice babbling even when caregivers are not proximal.
KW - Burstiness
KW - Infant vocalizations
KW - Infant-caregiver interactions
KW - Language input
KW - Proximity
KW - Synchrony
KW - Temporal structure
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U2 - 10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101298
DO - 10.1016/j.dcn.2023.101298
M3 - Article
C2 - 37774641
AN - SCOPUS:85172686035
SN - 1878-9293
VL - 64
JO - Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
JF - Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience
M1 - 101298
ER -