Gaze Shifting In Children

In both articles, infants’ gazes are crucial to the experiments conducted. Whether reacting to disappearing objects in Baillargeon's article or identifying with someone of the same skin color as said in Spelke and Kinzler’s article.

Children’s language development usually begins in their first three months. They will begin by learning to use their voice and enjoying vocal play. Babies will watch faces and mouths to try and copy movements and sounds.

seen and provide a way that afterwards the child can then understand and be able to communicate what they have seen effectively. These skills are all very crucial in helping children and young people to learn and manage how to listen and understand different concepts. They can then have a chance to develop their own opinions and ideas to then be able to participate in different decision making and problem solving in appropriate ways. Babies are nonverbal so to begin with they use sounds and facial expressions to communicate to adults expressing themselves and their needs (e.g. smiling, cooing and gurgling). Toddlers then start to have a small understanding and can use words and gestures to make connections to people and be able to develop their knowledge and understanding

Each child learns language at their own rate and pace. There can be different factors, such as a child learning multiple languages at once. Most often, with little effort, the child will be able to learn oral language by being in an environment that fosters conversation. Early on, toddlers will begin to make

In David Eagleman’s documentary, “Why Do I Need You?” he describes the importance of social interaction in the development of our brain. It is fundamental to interact with others and work holistically because it helps our brain to grow ultimately benefiting both the individual and society. Understanding people’s facial expressions, something so quick it is almost done unconsciously, is a vital aspect in communication. Eagle man demonstrates how individual from a young age, as early as twelve months, can understand the importance of socialization from their “inborn instincts” and through the observation of others to decide who to play and not play with. We thrive from understanding people’s social signal and without it it can become very hard

Surprisingly, an article by Kuhl (2015) stated that babies are born to master any language around the world if given a chance. In her research work together with other colleagues, tested American babies from Seattle who were nine-months old, who were divided into three groups. The first group was with babies who had Mandarin Chinese teachers who talked and played with them using toys and books. The second groups were babies who watched Mandarin Chinese, while the others, listened to a radio talking in Mandarin. The last group was the controlled group where in, they were not exposed to see or hear any Mandarin language but, only heard graduate students who speak in English. Nonetheless, these babies were allowed to play with the other groups

Eye contact and shared reference is an important role in establishing communication loops when interacting with an infant because after making eye contact, is when a communication loop should be created. An example of this is when a mother makes eye contact with her newborn son and creates a communication loop by speaking, listening, and then responding to her newborn’s nonverbal behavior. An infant’s participation in eye contact/shared reference and communication loops is critical to later language development and social interaction.

Babies learn to talk by hearing language and having language directed at them in "conversation." Between 6-12 months, babies begin to fine-tune

Brain development is very critical in the early stages of life. The brain begins to form very early in prenatal life, however, brain development is a life marathon not a sprint. This is why brain development and emergent literacy belongs together like peanut butter and jelly. Emergent literacy is a gradual process that takes place over time from birth; until a child can read and write in what we consider to be a conventional sense (Machado, 2013). Infants almost immediately communicate with their mother after birth, their bond initially begins when the mother holds them for the first time making eye contact; this is called gaze coupling. As the child brain develops over the next few weeks the mother and baby become attached. Making eye

Fernald, Marchman, and Weisleder showed this by conducting a study where they followed forty-eight children from age eighteen to twenty-four months. The children came from homes with diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and with mothers whose levels of education ranged from not completing high school to going to graduate school. Parents filled out the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventory, and then the children then took part in the looking-while-listening procedure. The children’s faces were videotaped so that the researchers could see where exactly the child was looking when they were presented with the images, and the reaction times were coded. Results showed that the children from higher socioeconomic backgrounds had more advanced

Babies prefer the sound of humans interacting to other sounds and from this, they quickly learn to recognise and identify their mother’s voice. Babies form their first relationship through emotional attachments with their mother or main carer. The first year of a baby’s life is a period of incredible growth, and a baby’s brain goes through critical periods during which stimulation is needed for proper development. During the babies first years, visual stimuli or verbal language is necessary for areas of the brain to grow and without this growth, a child’s vision or speaking abilities might be impaired. Infants tend to have different cries for hunger or pain, as well as making other noises. These abilities show your child is gaining communication and pre-language skills. Infants from birth to 6 months will forget about objects they cannot see however they begin to explore objects they can see and grab by putting them in their mouths. They will also follow moving objects with their eyes and look around at nearby objects. Infants in this stage will turn to look at a source of sound. These developmental milestones show a baby’s brain is developing and they are gaining new skills. From 7 to 12 months, infants also learn the idea of cause and effect, and they might repeat an action that causes a

Gazing plays a central role in the social and cognitive development of a child. It is documented that from the age of 3 months, a child will begin to develop perceptual learning. An example of this hypothesis was tested with an actor holding a stuffed kitten in front a 1 year old. The 1 year old stared at the kitten longer, therefore the infant’s desire for what the actor was holding caused the infant to interpret the actor’s behavior as

It is believed that babies develop language when they are in the utero and it continues throughout their lifetime. By twelve weeks old, babies may register the sounds they can hear and at the same time make basic visual, auditory and tactile mind maps (Karen Kearns, 2013, P.105). This allows the infant to turn towards any familiar sounds and noises. Babies begin to communicate with people around them quite quickly. By two months old, babies begin to make ‘cooing’ and other noises; this indicates the phonological component of language development. By six to nine months babies begin to experience with a mixture of sounds, and often you will hear a baby babbling. Babbling development is similar across many different languages and even hearing impaired babies will go through this stage. They may copy the sounds they are introduced too or beginning to recognize familiar

1A). The first thing I learned that changed the way I think about development is from the reading of Adolph & Joh (2007) and it’s how looking is not only an exploratory system but also a performatory action system. As the article explains “Looking is used as system for infants as a way to respond to and initiate changes in the external environment in this case, the social environment” (66). Looking is one of the first forms of communication that infants use, as they use it as a way to gain insight on their distinct self and to see the intentions that are out there in the world (66). As a conversation takes place between infant and caregiver, both parties respond to how each individual performs based on their emotional feelings. Social contingencies must be met for the performance action to be successful if the two parties do not reciprocate with a valid response in the conversation then the infant or adult may feel a sense of disengagement.

Eyes intrigue young and old alike, as they give an insight into another’s complex mental state such as emotions, beliefs and desires (Frischen et al. 2007) and indicate where people attend which predicts future actions (Baron-Cohen, 1995). From infancy, eye contact plays a crucial role for healthy development. It aids healthy bonding and offers mother and child a rich source of information and a means to communicate. Developmental research suggests that gaze following plays a major role in the acquisition of language (Baldwin, 1995) and the development of a theory of mind (ToM) (Baron-Cohen, 1995; Gomez 2009), which is necessary to achieve successful social interactions. The study of visual attention (gaze cueing, gaze following