Key Words: protoconversations, mother-infant interaction, Costa Rica, early language development, and school readiness
ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationship between sociocommunicative interactive strategies and child early language. Variation in maternal communicative patterns is well documented (Dickinson & Tabors, 2001; McCabe & Peterson, 1991) and has shown how parents who extend discourse with their children elicit narratives from them. Parents who explain and expand conversation with children seem to provide children with experiences that promote the development of more sophisticated language skills. Most of the available research pertains to young North American children who are able to produce at least one- or two-word utterances. This study contributes to this research by exploring parental interactive styles with preverbal infants in a sample of mother–infant dyads from Costa Rica.
INTRODUCTION
Although infants do not have the capacity to narrate, they do participate in early interactions with primary caregivers. Even in the first few months of life, infants are exposed to routine rituals that provide patterns for interaction with significant adult others. Routines like bathing and feeding provide children with predictable patterns of behavior and speech (Trevarthen & Hubley, 1978; Tronick, Als, & Adamson, 1979). Games played between the infant and caregiver, such as “pat-a-cake” and “I'm-going-to-get-you,” offer elements common in emergent conversation including turn-taking and partner engagement, observed through pauses and eye gaze. These subtle sociocommunicative exchanges have been labeled protoconversations (Stern, 1985; Trevarthen, 1979).