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13.3.3: Strategies that Support Language Development- Protoconversations

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    • Todd LaMarr
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    Protoconversations

    Infants produce both speech-like vocalizations (i.e., protophones) and cries from birth (Nathani, Ertmer & Stark, 2006). Even before infants produce their first words, caregivers and infants show turn-taking communication patterns referred to as “protoconversation” (Bateson, 1975; Trevarthen & Aitken, 2001). Protoconversations involve communicative turn-taking between caregivers and infants using a variety of communication such as vocalizations, gestures, facial expressions and language. Infants between 3 and 5 months produce more than 40% of their turns in overlap with caregivers, while this proportion of overlap decreases after 5 months and drops to around 20% at 18 months (Hilbrink, Gattis & Levinson, 2015). Caregiver responses (verbal or non-verbal) to infant protophones most often occur within one second after infant protophones (Keller et al., 1999; Yoo, Bowman & Oller, 2018). Caregiver responses to protophones thus appear to provide a rich learning opportunity. Through protoconversation, caregivers play a key role for infants in helping them learn the turn-taking system necessary for communication (Hilbrink, Gattis & Levinson, 2015). Furthermore, many longitudinal studies have shown that protophones are foundations for language development (Koopmans-van Beinum & van der Stelt, 1986; Oller, 1980; Roug et al., 1989; Stark, 1980). In summary, early turn-taking and protoconversations support language development by laying the foundation of back-and-forth communication and highlight the role of social interactions for supporting language development (Donnelly & Kidd, 2021). [1]

    Smiling mother holds smiling infant to chest
    Figure \(\PageIndex{1}\): Caregiver and an infant engaged in a protoconversation. ([2])

    Caregivers can use protoconversations to support language development in the following ways:

    • Recognize that protophones offer a special opportunity to bond with an infant and are important for the beginning development of speech.
    • Even before an infant’s vocalizations begin to sound like speech, engage with the infant in protoconversations.
    • A protoconversation involves contingent, bidirectional turn taking, so make sure you allow for time devoted to an infant where you can respond to their communication promptly and continue the turn taking conversation.
    • Being an engaging caregiver in the communicative partnership positively affects the quantity and quality of infant vocalizations (Goldstein & Schwade, 2008).
    • There are various ways to respond to infant vocalizations including physical touch, vocalizations, speech and facial expressions. In terms of vocal and speech responses, caregivers have been found to primarily use affirmations and imitations with young infants, and then expand their responses to include expansions, descriptions, and questions as children’s abilities increase (Tamis‐LeMonda, Bornstein & Baumwell, 2001). This shows that caregivers are sensitive to infant vocal capacities and respond accordingly, thereby fostering infant vocal development.

    [1] Yoo et al., (2018). The origin of protoconversation: An examination of caregiver responses to cry and speech-like vocalizations. Frontiers in Psychology, 9, 1510. CC by 4.0

    [2] Image by Raul Angel on Unsplash.

    This page titled 13.3.3: Strategies that Support Language Development- Protoconversations is shared under a mixed 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Todd LaMarr.