Baby hands that move to the rhythm of language: hearing babies acquiring sign languages babble silently on the hands

The "ba, ba, ba" sound universal to babies' babbling around 7 months captures scientific attention because it provides insights into the mechanisms underlying language acquisition and vestiges of its evolutionary origins. Yet the prevailing mystery is what is the biological basis of babbling, with one hypothesis being that it is a non-linguistic motoric activity driven largely by the baby's emerging control over the mouth and jaw, and another being that it is a linguistic activity reflecting the babies' early sensitivity to specific phonetic-syllabic patterns. Two groups of hearing babies were studied over time (ages 6, 10, and 12 months), equal in all developmental respects except for the modality of language input (mouth versus hand): three hearing babies acquiring spoken language (group 1: "speech-exposed") and a rare group of three hearing babies acquiring sign language only, not speech (group 2: "sign-exposed"). Despite this latter group's exposure to sign, the motoric hypothesis would predict similar hand activity to that seen in speech-exposed hearing babies because language acquisition in sign-exposed babies does not involve the mouth. Using innovative quantitative Optotrak 3-D motion-tracking technology, applied here for the first time to study infant language acquisition, we obtained physical measurements similar to a speech spectrogram, but for the hands. Here we discovered that the specific rhythmic frequencies of the hands of the sign-exposed hearing babies differed depending on whether they were producing linguistic activity, which they produced at a low frequency of approximately 1 Hz, versus non-linguistic activity, which they produced at a higher frequency of approximately 2.5 Hz - the identical class of hand activity that the speech-exposed hearing babies produced nearly exclusively. Surprisingly, without benefit of the mouth, hearing sign-exposed babies alone babbled systematically on their hands. We conclude that babbling is fundamentally a linguistic activity and explain why the differentiation between linguistic and non-linguistic hand activity in a single manual modality (one distinct from the human mouth) could only have resulted if all babies are born with a sensitivity to specific rhythmic patterns at the heart of human language and the capacity to use them.     

Babies' logic activity: a differential study

From a neuroconstructivist point of view based on infant cognitive development, the aim of this study is to get to know and compare the logical organization and content of the spontaneous activity of babies with alternative developmental courses (typical babies and Down's Syndrome ones). A fundamental form of logic is observed since the beginning of babies' interaction with their environment. This protologic is constructed through their organised and significative activity with the environment and it results in the elaboration of logico-mathematical and physical knowledge. Using Systematic Observation, we recorded the spontaneous activity of n=20 babies, (n=10 typical babies, n=10 Down Syndrome babies), with a cognitive developmental level of 1; 3 years (15 months). Microgenetical and statistical analyses were applied and the results obtained showed a reduced logical content and organization of the activity of Down's Syndrome babies, which corroborates and amplifies the results of previous research works. These results make evident the need to plan early educational intervention in order to optimize babies' developmental resources.     

Is Dutch native English? Linguistic analysis by 2-month-olds

A variant of the non-nutritive habituation/dishabituation sucking method was used to test 2-month-old English infants’ perception of languages. This method tests for the spontaneous interest of the baby to a change in the stimulus. English and Japanese were clearly discriminated. The difference between French and Japanese was equally clearly not of interest to babies using this procedure, the babies behaving as though both languages were classified simply as ‘foreign’. In order to further specify babies’ representation of native and foreign language, we used Dutch, which shares a number of suprasegmental features with English. The results from our last 2 experiments indicate that a portion of our 6–12 week-old babies consider Dutch as native, suggesting that we tapped in a transition period where the babies are still refining the suprasegmental specification of their native language.     

Crib death: a biobehavioral phenomenon?

In developed countries, more children under 1 year of age die of crib death (sudden infant death syndrome, SIDS) than of all other causes combined. Researchers and clinicians have proposed many possible causes of SIDS, but the abrupt, unexpected death of some babies remains mysterious and frightening. Although infant behavior may explain some of these deaths, scant attention has addressed behavioral characteristics of babies who die without medical explanation. Any explanation of SIDS must account for the fact that most SIDS deaths occur at 2 to 5 months of age, acknowledging that a protective mechanism appears to spare babies before 2 months but then disappears. The respiratory occlusion reflex serves as an initial defense against smothering and can provide such an explanation. Infantile reflexes wane, after providing opportunities for learned responses to be acquired. During this well-documented neurobehavioral transition from subcortical to cortically mediated responding, some babies, viable for the first 2 months, may become especially vulnerable if they fail to acquire sufficiently strong defensive behaviors needed to prevent occlusion after the waning of the life-preserving reflex. Recent success of back-to-sleep directives, urging that babies sleep on their backs to avoid smothering, supports this hypothesis.     

Should Extremely Premature Babies Get Ventilators During the COVID-19 Crisis?

Abstract

In a crisis, societal needs take precedence over a patient’s best interests. Triage guidelines, however, differ on whether limited resources should focus on maximizing lives or life-years. Choosing between these two approaches has implications for neonatology. Neonatal units have ventilators, some adaptable for adults. This raises the question of whether, in crisis conditions, guidelines for treating extremely premature babies should be altered to free-up ventilators. Some adults who need ventilators will have a survival rate higher than some extremely premature babies. But surviving babies will likely live longer, maximizing life-years. Empiric evidence demonstrates that these babies can derive significant survival benefits from ventilation when compared to adults. When “triaging” or choosing between patients, justice demands fair guidelines. Premature babies do not deserve special consideration; they deserve equal consideration. Solidarity is crucial but must consider needs specific to patient populations and avoid biases against people with disabilities and extremely premature babies.     

Helping parents of premature babies: A cognitive-behavioral approach

Having an infant in an intensive care setting is highly stressful for parents and may disrupt the bonding process. This article presents a cognitive-behavioral framework as a useful way of understanding and intervening with parents of normal, healthy, premature babies. Differences are shown between stimulus events experienced by parents of term and premature babies and the consequent differences in thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are discussed. Suggestions are made for helping parents of premature babies replace dysfunctional irrational cognitions with more appropriate and rational beliefs.     

Sex-related differences in the relationship between sibling status and responsivity to babies

Ninety-six middle-class subjects equally divided by age (4–5, 8–9, and 14–15 years), sex, and the presence or absence of younger siblings in the family were studied in two situations which assessed their interest in babies: responsivity to an unfamiliar baby in a waiting room situation and reactions to pictures of babies. Subjects' birth order does not affect degree of interest, only mode of expression. These findings held for boys, but not girls. Regardless of age, boys without younger siblings expressed their interest in babies in more distal, cautious ways. The results were discussed in terms of the contention that birth order effects are best understood as distinctive for each sex, especially when sex-role-related behavior is being investigated.This project was supported by funds from the Boys Town Center for the Study of Youth at Stanford. We are indebted to Barbara Aschenbrenner for her assistance in all phases of this study.     

Baby Wordsmith

ABSTRACT— How do infants acquire their first words? Word reference , or how words map onto objects and events, lies at the core of this question. The emergentist coalition model (ECM) represents a new wave of hybrid developmental theories suggesting that the process of vocabulary development changes from one based in perceptual salience and association to one embedded in social understanding. Beginning at 10 months, babies learn words associatively, ignoring the speaker's social cues and using perceptual salience to guide them. By 12 months, babies attend to social cues, but fail to recruit them for word learning. By 18 and 24 months, babies recruit speakers' social cues to learn the names of particular objects speakers label, regardless of those objects' perceptual attraction. Controversies about how to account for the changing character of word acquisition, along with the roots of children's increasing reliance on speakers' social intent, are discussed.     

处于生存极限的低出生体重儿该如何决策救治

我国极低及超低出生体重儿的出生比例已接近发达国家。但因为经济、文化、技术及社会保障制度等原因,相当多的患儿得不到合理救治。这与发达国家相比有很大差距。让医护人员做到合理评估和告知,适时放弃治疗,完善社会保障制度,加强社会舆论监督和教育,加快相关制度、法规的建立等措施有望改变这一现状。     

Lifting weights in neonates: Developing visual control of reaching

To test whether newborn babies take account of external forces in moving their limbs, spontaneous arm-waving movements were measured while the baby lay supine with its head turned to one side. Free-hanging weights, attached to each wrist by strings passing over pulleys, pulled on the arms in the direction of the toes. The results showed the babies applied compensatory forces to keep the hand they faced moving in the same region. In contrast, the (invisible) contra-lateral hand was pulled down by the weights. In a second experiment, where the arms were occluded, both arms were pulled down, suggesting that sight of the arm was necessary in compensating for the weight. In a third, conclusive experiment the babies viewed the arm they were not facing on a small video-monitor and this time the babies kept the visible contra-lateral hand up despite the weights. The results challenge the general view that spontaneous arm movements of neonates are purposeless and either reflexive or due to spontaneous patterned efference to the muscles. Instead, the findings suggest that in waving their arms, neonates are developing visual control of reaching.     

Existential function of babies: Babies as a buffer of death-related anxiety

The present study examined babies as death anxiety buffers with Chinese participants in three experiments. In Experiment 1, death-related thoughts increased college-aged participants' interest in human babies. In Experiment 2, images of newborn animals reduced the number of death-related thoughts recorded by college-aged participants. In Experiment 3, female factory workers who read news articles describing deaths of babies had pessimistic estimations of their own life expectancies. An explanation of these results is provided within a terror management theory framework, with a primary focus on how babies reinforce cultural worldviews and enhance self-esteem via the notion of symbolic immortality. Thus, the anxiety-buffering function of baby is subsumed under cultural worldviews validation and self-esteem enhancement.     

Modulation of the palmar grasp behavior in neonates according to texture property

The study investigates the newborn's grasping behavior according to the texture property of an object. 22 full term healthy newborns were tested with their right hand. Eleven babies were exposed to a first condition in which the spontaneous manual activity on an object with a smooth texture was recorded. Eleven babies were exposed to an another condition: they hold the very same object than those presented in the baseline condition except that thin pearls were added on its surface, increasing its roughness. The results provide evidence for the existence of a modulation of hand activity according to the texture property of the object. The nature of this modulatory capacity of the hand is discussed.     

The influence of age, gender, and having a younger sibling on children's knowledge about babies.

This article reports on two studies designed to measure 4- to 7-year-old children's knowledge about babies and its relationship to gender role development. In Study 1, children were asked several questions about babies and were given the Sex Role Learning Index (SERLI; Edelbrock & Sugawara, 1978). Girls provided more answers to one question, and children with younger siblings provided more answers to another. Overall, however, there were few relationships between knowledge about babies and gender role development. The second study measured knowledge about babies with two measures. The first measure asked children to identify foods that babies could eat and activities babies were capable of doing. The second measure asked children to identify the names and uses of certain objects. Older children scored higher on the foods and activities measure. Children who had younger siblings performed better on the objects measure. Gender and gender role development showed little relationship to knowledge about babies.     

The Divorce of Marriage and Parenthood

Marriage is a template for domestic life and the problems that arise in it. The patterned assumptions that traditionally defined marriage gave substance to the family. These assumptions have become less compelling over the course of a century. In this paper, I suggest how and why this has happened. I focus on the meaning of parenthood and its relationship to marriage. In the course of a century, parenthood has been redefined as a rational choice governed by calculation. As a result, childbearing, pregnancy, marriage and parenthood have been redefined. Their relationships to one another have, to varying degrees, been altered. Marriage is an institutionalized way to care for the babies that once came, inevitably, as a result of sexual intercourse. What becomes of marriage when sex no longer produces babies? The answer is that everything about marriage and the family changes. Such changes help explain the rise of professional family therapy and related fields.     

Use of the mutual exclusivity assumption by young word learners

A critical question about early word learning is whether word learning constraints such as mutual exclusivity exist and foster early language acquisition. It is well established that children will map a novel label to a novel rather than a familiar object. Evidence for the role of mutual exclusivity in such indirect word learning has been questioned because: (1) it comes mostly from 2 and 3-year-olds and (2) the findings might be accounted for, not by children avoiding second labels, but by the novel object which creates a lexical gap children are motivated to fill. Three studies addressed these concerns by having only a familiar object visible. Fifteen to seventeen and 18-20-month-olds were selected to straddle the vocabulary spurt. In Study 1, babies saw a familiar object and an opaque bucket as a location to search. Study 2 handed babies the familiar object to play with. Study 3 eliminated an obvious location to search. On the whole, babies at both ages resisted second labels for objects and, with some qualifications, tended to search for a better referent for the novel label. Thus mutual exclusivity is in place before the onset of the naming explosion. The findings demonstrate that lexical constraints enable babies to learn words even under non-optimal conditions--when speakers are not clear and referents are not visible. The results are discussed in relation to an alternative social-pragmatic account.     

Introduction: babies in the consulting room: what happens when analyst, mother, and infant meet?

Analytic work with a pregnant woman may foster the psychological gestation of the self-as-mother. For the mother--as for the infant--the developmental process continues well beyond delivery. It should not surprise us, then, that many mothers continue to bring their babies to sessions after birth. Analytic work in this context can affect a patient's sense of herself, and perhaps her competence, as a mother. Yet the presence of babies in the consulting room is an underacknowledged feature of contemporary practice. For this section of JAPA, we have collected three papers that explore some of the unique challenges and opportunities that arise when a patient brings her baby to treatment. Earlier versions of each paper were first presented at a panel, "Babies in the Consulting Room," at the June 2011 meeting of the American Psychoanalytic Association in San Francisco.     

Responsiveness to babies: Life-situation specific sex differences in adulthood

Responsivity to babies was observed in 96 mature adults representative of three junctures of parenthood: parents of infants, parents of 8-to-9-year-olds, and parents of adolescents. Among the measures used were reactions to an unfamiliar infant in a waiting room, interest in pictures of babies versus other objects, and sex-role concept and attitudinal questionnaires. Stage of family life cycle affected women's responsivity, but not men's. New mothers displayed a heightened generalized interest in babies which is optimally timed and functional in terms of sex-differentiated role requirements. A possible confounding between cohort effects and stage in the family life cycle was examined and rejected. Traditionally sex-typed behaviors were reinterpreted as life-situation specific rather than general traits.This study was supported by grants from NIMH (1 R03 MH28264-01) and from Boys Town Center for the Study of Youth Development, Stanford University. The authors thank Barbara Aschenbrenner for her invaluable assistance in all phases of the research.     

What's in a name?: popular names are less common on frontiers

Voluntary settlement on a frontier may promote values of independence. At present, however, researchers know little about the behavioral consequences of this process. In this study, we examined regional variations in baby naming. Because baby naming is an act of considerable personal and familial significance, it reflects prevalent cultural values. In support of the hypothesized link between frontier settlement and independence, we found that babies receive popular names less frequently in western regions of the United States than in its eastern regions (Study 1). The same pattern holds in Canada (Study 2), with popular names being less frequent in western provinces than in eastern provinces. Moreover, popular names are less frequently given to babies in world regions in which Europeans have settled (e.g., Australia, the United States) than in European countries (Study 3). These findings have implications for cross-generational transmission of cultural values.     

Are effects of emotion expression on trait impressions mediated by babyfaceness? Evidence from connectionist modeling

Two studies provided evidence that bolsters the Marsh, Adams, and Kleck hypothesis that the morphology of certain emotion expressions reflects an evolved adaptation to mimic babies or mature adults. Study 1 found differences in emotion expressions' resemblance to babies using objective indices of babyfaceness provided by connectionist models that are impervious to overlapping cultural stereotypes about babies and the emotions. Study 2 not only replicated parallels between impressions of certain emotions and babies versus adults but also showed that objective indices of babyfaceness partially mediated impressions of the emotion expressions. babyface effects were independent of strong effects of attractiveness, and babyfaceness did not mediate impressions of happy expressions, to which the evolutionary hypothesis would not apply.     

Perceptions of infant boys' behavior and mental health: Relation to infant attachment

Two studies were conducted to determine the impact of infants' attachment classifications and behaviors on naive adults' impressions of their behavior and mental health. In Study 1, three groups of 44 adults viewed a videotape of episode 8 of the Strange Situation for either an avoidant, a resistant, or a secure male infant. After viewing the videotape, they made judgments about aspects of the infant's mental health. Adults viewed the resistant baby as less socially competent and more negative in affect than the other two babies and the secure baby as the least independent of the three babies. Parents rated babies as more intelligent than did nonparents. In Study 2, 15 parents were matched on race and gender with 15 nonparents. All adults viewed a videotape of the reunions of two secure, two avoidant, and two resistant male infants. Avoidant babies were viewed as more socially competent and independent than secure babies and the C2 baby was viewed as the least intelligent, least independent, least socially competent, and most affectively negative of the infants. Results are interpreted as underscoring the need to educate parents and paraprofessionals about the importance of infant distress and physical contact with parents.