The Building Blocks of Conversation
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The Building Blocks of Conversation
A review of Speech development in infants, by B. Bower (Science News 2003)
In the article Speech development in infants by B. Bower, it is stated that the art of conversation is learned through certain precisely timed vocal interactions between infants and adults. A new study found that by four months, babies have acquired the tools necessary to produce sounds directed towards another person, such as when to pause, and when to join in conversation with a partner. B. Bower states that babies "exhibit the same patterns of rhythmic give-and-take that adults use to converse." Moreover, psychiatrist Jerome Jaffe of Columbia University reported that at about four months, a baby's ability to coordinate sounds and silences with its mother and other adults has "major implications" in the social and intellectual development of that child. This theory proposed by Jaffe suggests that the extent of coordinated vocalizations an infant makes with adults directly affects the level of comfort and ease with which a one-year feels in laboratory situations. A moderate level of vocalizations by an infant manifested a greater sense of comfort in laboratory situations by the first year of age. On the other hand, infants who either under vocalized or over vocalized with adults showed having both emotional and social problems by the age of 1...