Sleep like a Baby

Dear Families,

 If you are expecting and want to have a healthy start for your baby or if you have a newborn and want to help your baby sleep, this is for you!  

               - Minnie                    

---

Understanding Baby's Sleep

---

          After departing from your nice, warm uterus, your baby suddenly needs to do many things by himself. He needs to breath, eat, eliminate, control body temperature and etc. Regulating and maintaining homeostasis is a huge job for him to accomplish during the first few months after birth. Sleep/arousal is one of these big tasks.         

          You would like to see your little one to sleep and be awake in more predictable patterns, sleep for longer stretches, have a smoother transition between sleep and being awake, being awake for feeding, enjoying time with you, learning the world, and eventually more consolidated night time sleep. His sleep and arousal can be divided into six states characterized by observable evidence such as breathing, eye movement, and body movement. The big changes in states is that full-term babies spend 50% of their sleep for active sleep at birth and it reduces to 25% by 6 months. Studies have suggested that this change correlates to rapid brain development. Moreover, they have shorter sleep cycles (60 minutes) when compared to adults (90 minutes) which equates to more vulnerable moments for arousal.

          Sleep/arousal is organized based on the circadian rhythm and homeostatic processes. Circadian rhythm incorporates cues from the external environment to regulate timing. So, sunlight in the morning, and darkness at night are cues to activate circadian rhythm. Sleep pressure in the homeostatic process is relieved by sleep. Let's imagine a spring toy – When you wake up, you are constantly tightening the spring and once you fall asleep, the spring is released. Your baby's sleep gradually is organized by these two bodily processes.

          If your baby is premature or medically fragile, they need more support from you to organize their sleep and arousal due to the immaturity of central nervous system and lack of typical habituation* due to hospitalization.

*Habituation: The world of sensory stimuli can be overwhelming for your baby. If your baby is exposed to a familiar environment, he will learn how to react less to those repeated sensory inputs, consequently lessening their arousals. This is called habituation.

Why is your baby's sleep important?

There are several reasons of which, studies have confirmed

• Physical health (growth & development, obesity, immune system)
• Brain development and function (brain metabolism, memory consolidation, learning)
• Awake time performance and safety
• Emotional well-being
• Your baby's sleep = whole family's well-being
• Sleep issues can become chronic

---

Supporting your baby's sleep

---

          First and foremost, is creating a safe environment to prevent sudden infant death (SID). Here are general guidelines of safe to sleep (campaign) created by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. 

          The needs for each baby is as unique as those for the family. The ways of supporting your baby's needs largely depending on who your child is and what situation he is in. The following suggestions are not made as solutions but should help guide you in finding ways to meet your little one's unique needs by observing and understanding his sleep and arousal.

OBSERVATION & RECORD

          Sleep/arousal states should not be looked at as isolated but interdependent. Therefore, your observation should be done in 24-hour time-frames.   

Your child

• How's his sleep/arousal patterns? You can look into this while relating it to the six states.

• What about his sleep cycles? 

You

• What changes have been made that have made your baby more or less sleep/calm/alert/irritable (e.g., your voice, mood, pace, how to play with, feed, change him, hold, move, bundle him, efforts to calm him down, etc.)?

Environment

• What sensory inputs made him more or less sleep/calm/alert/irritable (e.g., lights, sound, new blanket, visitors, weather, etc.)?

FOLLOW YOUR CHILD'S LEAD & SUPPORT HIM TO DEVELOP MORE HABITUATION.

          Now, you are aware of your child's sleep patterns and what help his sleep and attention while he is awake. It's time to create the best daily routine for him. It cannot be a rigid schedule, since his needs can change from time to time. However, it is good to have some predictable patterns/flows which can help him react less to sensory stimuli when he is tired (habituation).  

YOUR SLEEP IS IMPORTANT, TOO!

          Studies have confirmed that parental sleep deprivation due to their babies' sleep issues can cause depression, poor sleep quality, fatigue, physical health issues and can also, increase potential accidents (e.g., micro sleep while driving). This tremendously impacts the relationship between you and your baby since you are prone to having less patience and making less than ideal parenting decisions in order to meet his needs, including his sleep needs. This two can become an endless chain effect. Therefore, your attempt to addressing your own sleep should coincide with one another. The best way to approach this is lifestyle changes. Food intakes (e.g., caffeine), usage of electronics, exercise, relaxation techniques, etc. should be looked at as compounding factors. 

OTHER CONSIDERATIONS

          As your child become bigger and stronger, his needs will change. Therefore, your observation and readjusting your support should be a constant focus. It is also important to keep in mind that it is common to have sleep disturbances during the first few years of life. However, it is also important to seek medical help if your baby's sleep issues become out of control or chronic. 

                      Sleep is important for your baby's growth and development as well as                 the well-being of your whole family!

Bibliography

Bayer, J. K., Hiscock, H., Hampton, A., & Wake, M. (2007).  Sleep problems in young infants and maternal mental and physical health. Journal of Pediatrics and Child Health, 43, 66–73. 

Browne, J. V. & Talmi, A. (2015). BABIES and PreSTEPS Manual and materials.

Ficca, G., Fagioli, I., Giganti, G., & Salzarulo, P. (1999). Spontaneous awakenings from sleep in the first year of life. Early Human Development, 55, 219–22

Galland, B. C., Taylor, B. J., Elder, D. E., & Herbison, P. (2012). Normal sleep patterns in infants and children: A systematic review of observational studies. Sleep Medicine Reviews, 16, 213-22.

Gomez, R. L., Newman-Smith, K. C., Breslin, J. H., Bootzin, R. R. (2011). Learning, Memory, and Sleep in Children. Sleep Medicine Clinics, 6, 45–57. doi: 10.1016/j.jsmc.2010.12.00

Goodlin-Jones, B.L., Burnham, M.M., Gaylor, E.E., & Anders, T. (2001). Night waking, sleep-wake organization, and self-soothing in the first year of life. Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics, 22(4), 226-233.

Halbower, A. C., & Marcus, C. L. (2003). Sleep disorders in children. Current Opinion in Pulmonary Medicine,9, 471-476.

Hall, W. A. (2015). Taking Young Children's Sleep Seriously: From Research to Practice. IDSC Summer Institute, UBC.

Hall, W.A., Saunders, R. A., Clauson, M., Carty, E. M., Janssen, P. A. (2006). Effects of an intervention aimed at night waking and signaling in 6- to 12-month-old infants. Behavioral Sleep Medicine, 4(4), 242-261.

Hall, W.A., Scher, A., Zaidman-Zait, A., Espezel, H., & Warnock, F. (2012).  A community-based study of sleep and behavior problems in 12- to 36-month-old children. Child: Health, Care, and Development, 38(3), 379-389. doi:10.1111/j/1365-2214.2011.01252.

upbach, A., Gomez, R. L., Bootzin, R. R., & Nadel, L. (2009). Nap dependent learning in infants. Developmental Science 12(6),1007–1012. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-7687.2009.00837.x

Jenni, O., & O’Connor, B. B. (2005). Children’s Sleep: An interplay between culture and biology. Pediatrics, 115 (1), 204216.  

Martin, J., Hiscock, H., Hardy, P., Davey, B., & Wake, M. (2007). Adverse associations of infant and child sleep problems and parent health: An Australian population study. Pediatrics, 119 (5), 947-955. 

Mastin, L. (2013). How sleep works. Sleep-awake homeostasis. http://www.howsleepworks.com/how_homeostasis.html 

Mindell, J. A., Meltzer, L. J., Carskadon, M. A., & Chervin, R. D. (2009). Developmental aspects of sleep hygiene: Findings from the 2004 National Sleep Foundation Sleep in America Poll. Sleep Medicine, 10, 771-779. 

Nall, R. (2015). What are the benefits of sunlight?. Healthline. http://www.healthline.com/health/depression/benefits-sunlight 

Pattinson, C.L., Staton, S. L., Smith, S. S., Sinclair, D. M., & Thorpe, K. J. (2014). Emotional Climate and Behavioral Management during Sleep Time in Early Childhood Education Settings. Early Childhood Research Quarterly, 29, 660-668. 

Shriver, E.K. (2014). What Does a Safe Sleep Environment Look Like?. National Institute of Child Health &  Human Development: Safe to Sleep Campaign . https://www.nichd.nih.gov/sts/about/environment/Pages/look.aspx 

Touchette, E. Petit, D. Pacquet, J., Boivin, M. Japel, C., Tremblay, R.E., & Montplaisir, J.Y. (2005). Factors associated with fragmented sleep at night across early childhood. Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine, 159, 242-249. 

University Washington. (2016). What is sleep and why do we do it?. http://faculty.washington.edu/ 

Weiss, S. K. (2006). Better sleep for your baby and child: A parent’s step-by-step guide to healthy sleep habits. Hospital for Sick Children: Toronto, Ontario. 

Weissbluth, M. (1995). Naps in children 6 months – 7 years. Sleep, 18(2), 82-87.

Whittingham, K., & Douglas, P. (2014). Optimizing parent-infant sleep from birth to 6 months: a new paradigm: A new paradigm in infant sleep. Infant Mental Health Journal, 35(6), 614-623. doi:10.1002/imhj.21455

Promoting early language development by enhancing joint attention from parents

Dear families,

This posting will review the literature on joint attention as a critical tool for early language development.  The different types of joint attention will be explored and discussion on how children develop joint attention will be conducted.  Moreover, typical early language development will also be introduced.  Finally, based on the findings from the literature review, suggestions and recommendations will be made for parents providing them with how they can better promote early language development for their child by facilitating joint attention.  In this posting, the hope is that parents understand the importance of joint attention and facilitating joint attention in order to improve early language development in their child. 

- Minnie

            Testing ancient Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) explained that language even existed 50 ka (Klien, 2017).  Language expresses observation, thoughts, feelings, and needs (McKay, Davis, & Fanning, 1995).  Language is socially constructed (Benveniste & McKeon, 1965).  The ironic thing is that human cognition created language but language is a tool of the cognition process.  In other words, we use language for thoughts, a medium of all human symbolization, and acquisition of many other concepts (Carruthers, 2002).

            When we talk about language, we often refer to the verbal language.  In fact, language can be categorized into two colossal categories: non-verbal and verbal (Gonzalez-Mena & Eyer, 2014).  Both forms of language can be used for communication, however, the more sophisticated form is a verbal form (Berk, 2012).  For example, even a newborn lets us know if it's tired, hungry, in discomfort with crying from day one, but the first word of a typically developing child usually occurs at the age of one.  Non-verbal communication starts in infancy and persists throughout human life (Machado, 2007) while verbal language supports conveying messages consciously (University of Minnesota, 2016). 

            Another way to categorize language is expressive language and receptive language (Allen et al., 2014).  Expressive language refers express thoughts and ideas in a language form such as speaking and writing whereas receptive language means understanding other’s message which delivered in a language form (Smith, 2011).  Receptive language develops earlier than expressive language (Gonzalez-Mena & Eyer, 2014).

            DeGraffenreidt, Gransmick, Grafwallner, and O'Malley (2010) conceived child development into five closely linked areas: physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and language.  They argued that children are born with tremendous potential and capacity for learning across all developmental domains.  For example, the progress a child makes in one area affects the progress he or she makes in another area.  Not one area of child development is more important than another which emphasizes the importance of a well-balanced nurturing environment.  For example, social development and language development support each other and vice versa (Prizant & Wetherby, 1990).  According to Prizant and Wetherby (1990), developing attachment is crucial for early language development while language development support young children’s building friendships and autonomy in children.  Moreover, mastering new motor skills changes children’s experiences and this allow them to practice skills relevant to language acquisition before they are needed for that purpose (Iverson, 2010).  Therefore, promoting language development is important not only for this single domain but also for other domains of development.

            Many researchers have tried to unveil the secrets of early language acquisition and found joint attention[1] to be a precursor to early language acquisition (Colonnesi, Stams, Koster, & Noom, 2010; Farrant & Zubrick, 2011; Morales, Mundy, & Rojas, 1998; Okumura, Kanakogi, Kobayashi, & Itakura, 2017; Scofield & Behrend, 2011; Rocha, Schreibman, & Stahmer, 2007; Tomasello & Farrar, 1986; Vuksanovic & Bjekic, 2013).  By measuring the frequency and/or quality of joint attention and the outcomes of language, they found a strong correlation.  Due to this, enhancing joint attention can be a way to promote early language development.

            In consideration for the importance of language development and correlation with joint attention, the following questions guide this posting:

            i) What is typical early language development?

            ii) What is joint attention and how does it develop?

            iii) What are some suggestions for parents who want to promote early language development in their child by enhancing joint attention?

Early Language Development

Infancy (Birth to 12 months of age)

            Infants start cooing at the age of two months followed by babbling at six months (Machado, 2007).  These types of language development usually accelerate at four months of age (Whitebread, 2012).  The preverbal communication is the foundation for the emergence of language skills (Prizant & Wetherby, 1990).  According to Prizant and Wetherby (1990), parental interpretation and labeling are important.  The first words usually occur around one-years-old (Gonzalez-Mena & Eyer, 2014).

Toddlerhood (12 months to 24 months)

            At the beginning of toddlerhood, new word acquisition is very slow; toddlers may learn a new word but at the same time, they may forget a word they already knew (Prizant & Wetherby, 1990).  At about 18 months, a sudden surge occurs in vocabulary growth (Gonzalez-Mena & Eyer, 2014) such as more words, combinations of words (Prizant & Wetherby, 1990).  According to Prizant and Wetherby (1990), toddlers can initiate and maintain communication.

Early Childhood (24 months to 48 months)

            At 24 months of age, he will begin to acquire fundamental skills related to organizing words and sentences (Prizant & Wetherby, 1990).  According to Prizant and Wetherby (1990), a child’s language becomes more exquisite and purposeful.  Due to this, a child’s social development blossoms through play and friendships.   

Joint Attention

            Joint attention is a part of non-verbal language (Vuksanovic & Bjekic, 2013).  Joint attention refers to parents’(caregivers’) and infants’ shared experiences on the same object or activity (Tomasello & Farrar, 1986).  Joint attention can be presented in various forms, such as mutual eye gazing, pointing, and gestures (Tomasello & Farrar, 1986) and there are two distinct aspects of joint attention; Initiating joint attention and responding to joint attention (Vuksanovic & Bjekic, 2013).  According to Mundy, Sigman, Ungerer, and Sherman (1986), initiating joint attention means capacity to gather others’ attention and share experiences through the use of the direction of eye gazes and gestures.  On the other hand, responding to joint attention involves following others’ direction of eye gaze, and/or gestures.

            Many researchers (Colonnesi, Stams, Koster, & Noom, 2010; Farrant & Zubrick, 2011; Morales, Mundy, & Rojas, 1998; Okumura, Kanakogi, Kanda, Ishiguro, & Itakura, 2013; Okumura, Kanakogi, Kobayashi, & Itakura, 2017; Scofield & Behrend, 2011; Tomasello & Farrar, 1986; Vuksanovic & Bjekic, 2013) revealed the vital role of joint attention in early language acquisition.  For example, Tomasello and Farrar (1986) revealed the vital role of joint attention in the acquisition of language.  In the study, 24 Caucasian, middle-class children and their mothers were recruited to local daycare facilities in the United States.  The children and mothers were given a set of toys to play with while they were being videotaped for a 15-minute time period.  Observations were performed using the same procedure when these children reached the ages of 15 months old and 21 months old.  In case of engaging joint attention with their mothers, toddlers produced more utterances per minute and maintained longer conversations.  From these findings, Tomasello and Farrar (1986) concluded that joint attention can scaffold early mother-child linguistic interaction.  

            Okumura et al. (2017) conducted a nine-month longitudinal study with thirty-seven 9 months old infants in Japan.  They were observing their responses to joint attention measured by a Tobii T60 Eye Tracker when they were 9 months old.  Also, their language was assessed through the Japanese version of the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories (CDI) completed by their parents at 18 months.  Okumura et al. (2017) discovered that the more times infants at 9 months spent responding to joint attention, the larger the size of their vocabularies at 18 months.  

Joint Attention Development

            In a meta-analysis study which involved 734 children from twenty-five studies, Colonnesi et al. (2010) discovered that the correlation between pointing and language development became stronger as children got older.  For example, the ability to respond to joint attention occurs earlier than the ability to initiate joint attention (Bocha et al., 2007).  As young as 6 month old infants can follow the direction of an adult’s eye gazing (Morales, Mundy, & Rojas, 1998).  With the consolidation of attachment, their ability of joint attention continually develops (Prizant & Wetherby, 1990), between 15 to 18 months, toddlers are able to demonstrate highly coordinate joint attention (Lewy & Dawson, 1992).

            Pointing gestures also evolve along with children’s maturity.  Lisxkowski and Tomasello (2011) compared whole hand pointers and index finger pointers.  They concluded that whole hand pointing and index finger pointing are different in terms of quality of joint attention.  In fact, index finger pointing is a more sophisticated form of joint attention, therefore, and it is the first step of intentional communication (Lisxkowski & Tomasello, 2011).

            Cochet et al. (2011) conducted another study about the changes of joint attention due to children’s maturity.  They explained the interconnection between brain development, the changes of joint attention, and language development.  Over a five month-observation, Cochet, et al. (2011) found that children who experienced lexical spurt demonstrated higher rates of asymmetry preference of pointing based on the maturation of the left cerebral hemisphere.  They argued that present and persistence of hand preference corresponded to lexical spurt.  In other words, changes in the form of joint attention can predict changes in language development. 

Suggestions for Parents

Figure 1. Eye gazing – human vs. robot (Okumura et al., 2013, p.128).

            The socio-ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979) provides insight into children’s development from a sociocultural perspective.  This theory acknowledges the ways that children are positioned within their families, child care settings, neighbourhoods, and the broader society, and how this impacts their development.  According to this theory, parents belong to the microsystem that directly impacts a child’s development.  In other words, parents are the most important and influential people in their child’s learning which includes language development.  In this session, some suggestions are made for parents who have a desire to promote their child’s language development through enhancing joint attention.

Be with the Child

Okumura et al. (2013) conducted an interesting experiment with Thirty-two 12 months old infants who were typically developing.  During the first experiment, they observed how infants responded to eye gazing from both humans and robots.  In this study, infants demonstrated a longer duration of object fixation.  In this study, Okumura et al. (2013) clearly revealed that the importance of humanness to facilitate the joint attention.  In addition, Farroni, Johnson, Menon, Zulian, Faraguna, and Csibra (2005) found that infants naturally had more attraction to the shape of the human face.  In this study, infants spent more time looking at face like shapes instead of
other.

Figure 2. Newborns’ preference of face shape stimuli (Farroni, Johnson, et al., 2005, p.17246).

Have More Eye Contacts

Figure 3. Eye gazing of robots with and without eyes (Farroni et al., 2005, p.131).

            Okumura et al. (2013) did another experiment with robots and infants.  Sixteen 12 months old infants participated in this study and were observed to see how they followed the introduced directions of the robots with eyes and without eyes.  Even though the movements (head turning) of both robots were identical, infants only followed the robot with eyes.  Okumura et al. (2013) revealed that infants did not consider the robot without eyes as being an agent who initiated joint attention.  In addition, in the study that I mentioned earlier about an infants’ natural attraction to the human face, researchers found that the focal point was the eyes (Farroni et al., 2005). Therefore, eyes play a vital role to recognize parents as agents that exchange joint attention and focus.                                   

Demonstrate Warm and Sensitive Parenting Style and Ensure One on One Time        

            Farrant and Zubrick (2011) found that parenting style and the number of siblings had an effect on joint attention facilitating early language development.  In their longitudinal study, 2188 children and their parents were observed twice.  For the first and second observations, the median age of children was 9 months and 34 months respectively.  The more warm and sensitive parenting the parents displayed, the more joint attentions occurred during the first observation and the more use of words were counted at the second observation.  On the other hand, the number of siblings in the family appeared to have a negative impact on joint attention experiences and word counts.  In their study, the more siblings the children had, the less joint attention and less words were observed.  Farrant and Zubrick (2011) assumed it was due to lack of one to one time.

Read More Books

            Farrant and Zubrick (2011) argued that book reading is a more structured joint attention activity.  It requires simultaneous pointing, sharing of experiences and verbal labeling (Farrant & Zubrick, 2011).  In fact, Farrant and Zubrick (2011) found the correlation between book reading and more word counts among 2188 children whose median age was 34 months.  They concluded book reading is an outstanding structured joint attention opportunity which fosters vocabulary expansion.

Share Positive Experience With the Child

            Joint attention occurs more when parents display positive emotions.  Leaven at el. (2014) examined 73 dyads of parents and their infants (6 to 18 months old) in a laboratory setting.  Parents were asked to hold their infants on their laps.  They were observed on how they reacted when dolls were animated on the opposite side of the table.  Leaven at el. (2014) found affective and referential synchrony, in other words, they smiled more when they pointed at the dolls.

            On the other hand, Adamson and Bakeman (1985) observed 27 infants of ages 6 to 18 months playing with their mothers, peers and alone at their homes.  They found infants displayed more effective rates with mothers and peers.  Also, they discovered that high rates of positive emotions were displayed when infants shared joint attention experiences.  These two studies clearly explained that sharing positive experiences between parents and their children will not only help parents demonstrate more preferential behaviour but also, their young children will initiate more joint attention behaviour. 

Promote Non-Verbal and Verbal Language Simultaneously      

            Vuksanovic and Bjekic (2013) compared 25 late talkers aged 18-22 months old and 25 children who are five months younger than the first group but typically developing in a 10 month-longitudinal study.  Even though there was no significant difference between late talkers and typically developing children in terms of frequency of joint attention bids, late talkers demonstrated a negative relationship between joint attention bids and language function.  From this findings, Vuksanovic and Bjekic (2013) concluded that typically developing children use non-verbal and verbal language together for their communication whereas late talkers use one or the other.

            Based on this study, parents should be role models in communicating with their young children in both means.  In other words, parents should use facial expressions which match the verbal messages.  Also, using sign language and gestures while talking to young children can be beneficial.  Moreover, inviting children as active participants in communication can provide them with more opportunities to experience and to practice their non-verbal and verbal communication.

Conclusion

            The aim of this project was to promote early language development through enhancing joint attention by parents.  To achieve this goal, typical courses of early language development from infancy to early childhood were introduced.  Joint attention refers to sharing experiences on the same object or activity between parents and infants (Tomasello & Farrar, 1986) as a part of non-verbal language (Vuksanovic & Bjekic, 2013).  Joint attention has two distinct aspects; Initiating joint attention and responding to joint attention (Vuksanovic & Bjekic, 2013).  Both initiating joint attention (Colonnesi et al., 2010; Tomasello & Farrar, 1986; Vuksanovic & Bjekic, 2013) and responding to joint attention (Farrant & Zubrick, 2011; Morales et al., 1998; Okumura et al., 2013; Okumura, et al., 2017) have vital roles in early language development.  Like any other development, the development of joint attention evolves along with child’s maturity.  For example, the ability to respond to joint attention occurs earlier than the ability to initiate joint attention (Bocha et al., 2007).  Index finger pointing is a more sophisticated form of joint attention, and it appears later than whole hand pointing (Lisxkowski & Tomasello, 2011).  In addition, emerging more persistence of asymmetry hand preference (e.g., using right hand dominantly) of pointing based on the maturation of the left cerebral hemisphere corresponds to the period of vocabulary spurt in children (Cochet et al., 2011).

            Based on the socio-ecological systems theory (Bronfenbrenner, 1979), parents are the most important and influential people in their child’s learning including in language development.  Therefore, some suggestions were also made for parents who want to promote their child’s language development through enhanced joint attention; being with the child, more eye contact, demonstrating a warm and sensitive parenting style, ensuring one on one time with the child, reading more books, sharing positive experiences with the child, and promoting non-vernal/verbal language simultaneously for communication with their child.  Through this project, the hope is that parents will thoughtfully reflect on the understanding of typical early language development, the importance of joint attention, understanding, and enhancing joint attention in order to promote language development in their child.

[1] Joint attention refers shared experiences on the same object or activity by to parents and infants (Tomasello & Farrar, 1986).

References

Adamson, L. R., and Bakeman, R. (1985). Affect and attention: infants observed with mothers and peers. Child Development. 56, 582–593. doi: 10.2307/1129748

Allen, K., Cowdery, G., Paasche, C., Langford, R., Nolan, K., & Cipparrone, B. (2014). Inclusion in Early Childhood Programs: Children with Exceptionalities (6th ed.). Toronto, Canada: Nelson.

Benveniste, E., & McKeon, N. (1965). Language and human experience. Diogenes, 13(51), 1-12.

Berk, L. E. (2012). Infants and Children: Prenatal through Middle Childhood (7th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson Education.

Bronfenbrenner, U. (1979). The ecology of human development: Experiments by nature and design. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Carruthers, P. (2002). The cognitive functions of language. Behavioral and Brain Science, 25(6), 657-674.

Cochet, H., Jover, M., & Vauclair, J. (2011). Hand preference for pointing gestures and bimanual manipulation around the vocabulary spurt period. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 110(3), 393-407. doi:10.1016/j.jecp.2011.04.009

Colonnesi, C., Stams, G. J. J. M., Koster, I., & Noom, M. J. (2010). The relation between pointing and language development: A meta-analysis. Developmental Review, 30(4), 352-366. doi:10.1016/j.dr.2010.10.001

DeGraffenreidt, J. H., Gransmick, N. S., Grafwallner, R., & O'Malley, M. (2010). Healthy Beginnings: Supporting Development and Learning from Birth to Three Years of Age. Baltimore, MD: Maryland State Department of Education.

Farrant, B. M., & Zubrick, S. R. (2012). Early vocabulary development: The importance of joint attention and parent-child book reading. First Language, 32(3), 343-364. doi:10.1177/0142723711422626

Farroni, T., Johnson, M. H., Menon, E., Zulian, L., Faraguna, D., & Csibra, G. (2005). Newborns' preference for face-relevant stimuli: Effects of contrast polarity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 102(47), 17245–17250, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0502205102

‎ Gonzalez-Mena, J., & Eyer, D. W. (2014). Infants, Toddlers, and Caregivers: A Curriculum of Respectful, Responsive, Relationship-Based Care and Education. (10TH ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Iverson, M. J. (2010). Developing language in a developing body: the relationship between motor development and language development. Journal of Child Language. 37(2). 229-261. doi:10.1017/S0305000909990432.

Klein, G. R. (2017). Language and human evolution. Journal of Neurolinguistics,  43, 204-221.

Leavens, D., Sansone, J., Burfield, A., Lightfoot, S., O'Hara, S., & Todd, B. (2014). Putting the "joy" in joint attention: Affective-gestural synchrony by parents who point for their babies. Frontiers in Psychology, 5, 879. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00879

Lewy, A. L., & Dawson, G. (1992). Social stimulation and language in autism and developmental language delay. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorder, 16, 335-349.

Liszkowski, U., & Tomasello, M. (2011). Individual differences in social, cognitive, and morphological aspects of infant pointing. Cognitive Development, 26(1), 16-29. doi:10.1016/j.cogdev.2010.10.001

McKay, M., Davis, M., & Fanning, P. (1995). Messages: Communication Skills Book (2nd ed.),  Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.

Morales, M., Mundy, P., & Rojas, J. (1998). Following the direction of gaze and language development in 6-month-olds. Infant Behavior and Development, 21(2), 373-377. doi:10.1016/S0163-6383(98)90014-5

Mundy, P., Sigman, M., Ungerer, J., & Sherman, T. (1986). Defining the social deficits of autism: The contribution of non-verbal communication measures. Journal of Child Psychiatry, 27, 657–669

Okumura, Y., Kanakogi, Y., Kanda, T., Ishiguro, H., & Itakura, S. (2013). The power of human gaze on infant learning. Cognition, 128(2), 127-133. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2013.03.011

Okumura, Y., Kanakogi, Y., Kobayashi, T., & Itakura, S. (2017). Individual differences in object-processing explain the relationship between early gaze-following and later language development. Cognition, 166, 418-424. doi:10.1016/j.cognition.2017.06.005

Prizant, B. M. & Wetherby, A. M. (1990). Toward an integrated view of early language and communication development and socioemotional development, Topics in language disorder, 10(4), 1-16.

Rocha, M. L., Schreibman, L., & Stahmer, A. C. (2007). Effectiveness of training parents to teach joint attention in children with autism. Journal of Early Intervention, 29(2), 154-172. doi:10.1177/105381510702900207

Smith, T. E., Polloway, E. A., Patton, J. R., Dowdy, C. A, McIntyre, L. (2014). Teaching Students with Special Needs in Inclusive Settings. (5th  Canadian ed.), North York, Canada: Pearson Canada

University of Minnesota. (2016). Communication in the Real World: An Introduction to Communication Studies. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing edition.

Vuksanovic, J., & Bjekic, J. (2013). Developmental relationship between language and joint attention in late talkers. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 34(8), 2360-2368. doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2013.04.017

An integrated view of early language development and socioemotional development

          Through an integrated view, in other words, multidisciplinary approach, we understand a child’s development as inter-relation between different developmental domains rather than isolated domains. Therefore, the inter-relationship between linguistic and socio-emotional development should be understood in the same manner. In fact, studies have shown that maltreated children and low birth weight children displayed less effective early language skills.

          The primary functions of a child’s communication (non-verbal and verbal) have two main functions.

1.       Regulate others

Through communication, a child influences the behaviours, attitudes, and belief of others. e.g., The baby shakes his head and you stop feeding him.

2.       Self- regulation

He will use his inner language to reflect, solve problems and anticipate and plan. When a baby understands, “it’s almost done”, he knows the food will come soon and is able to wait for his food without emotional arousal.

           The demonstration of these two functions clearly illustrates the interface between socio-emotional development and communication development.

Other characteristics of Child Development

          Your baby’s developmental outcomes are influenced by the dynamic relationship between you and your baby. For example, due to his fragile condition, the parents of a premature baby can be excessively cautious and provide poor care. This can lead him to develop irritability and a difficult temperament. The difficulties in taking care of him may cause his parent to avoid him or have limited reciprocal interactive experiences which can result in interfering with communication development.

          Moreover, development should be understood as a continuum rather than separate stages. The language development from infancy to early childhood is a gradual process and as time goes by, your child displays different qualities of communication skills. Due to this, it is difficult to pinpoint when your child should demonstrate specific qualities. However, using Prizant and Wetherby’s work as a reference, this framework will show you a snapshot of expected communication and socio-emotional developmental skills based on infancy, toddlerhood, and early childhood. (Table 1)

Infancy (Birth to 12 months of age)

          His preverbal communication is the foundation for the emergence of language skills. Through your interpretation of his behaviours, he will start experimenting with intentional communication. This will teach him that his behaviours can affect others, help him regulate himself by transforming his negative emotions to positive ones, and develop attachment. For example, a baby makes sounds. You read his cues and you will change his diaper. He becomes happy with his clean diaper.  This initial communication will draw your attention to the same objects or events that he wants to share with you (Joint attention) which is crucial for early language development.  Moreover, his developing ability to interpret your cues will make him use you as a reference in stressful circumstances.

Toddlerhood (12 months to 24 months)

          At the beginning of toddlerhood, even though new words acquisition is very slow, he will definitely start using symbolic and referential labels. At about 18 months, you can expect a sudden surge in vocabulary growth (e.g., more words, combinations of words). His growth in the consolidation of attachment, autonomy, self-regulation, and the awareness of his own abilities will allow him to communicate with others more often and more orally from a greater distance. He will be able to initiate and maintain communication with you. Referring to himself as I, me, and mine will help him to differentiate him from others and start having his own opinions and preferences. It will introduce to him a new way of being with others. He will also be able to understand the past, present, and future so he can regulate his emotions.

Early Childhood (24 months to 48 months)

          At 24 months of age, he will begin to acquire fundamental skills related to organizing words and sentences. The way he creates sentences become more complex and purposeful. For example, he will start using declarative, negative, imperative, and interrogative sentences. With his cognitive development, he will incorporate different concepts like position, size, internal state, time, condition and causality. His sense of self-esteem, self-image and self-efficacy develop; he now begins to portrait himself as a part of a broader social network. His play will become more complex with his development.

You as a Parent

          It is important to look at language difficulties in a holistic way based on a clear correlation between communication impairment and emotional difficulties. Moreover, parents who have direct impact on their child’s development, should be emotionally available rather than reject, be angry, and be confused when their child demonstrates language difficulties.

Information summarized from Prozant, B. M. & Wetherby, A. M. (1990). Toward an integrated view of early language and communication development and socioemotional development, Topics in language disorder, 10(4), 1-16.