From Gesture to Language in Hearing and Deaf Children

CHAPTER 3 Gestures, Words, and Early Object Sharing

CHAPTER 3 Gestures, Words, and Early Object Sharing L.B. ADAMSON, R. BAKEMAN, and C.B. SMITH Introduction An infant's first gestures and words are a developmental link between communication by "action" and communication by "symbol." Unlike literal acts, their meaning derives at least in part from social convention. Unlike truly symbolic acts, these conventionalized acts are not free from their context. Their referent isoftensocloseat hand that, even ifanact is poorlyexecuted, its meaning is relatively clear. The contextualization oftirst gestures and words has been stressed in several recent accounts of early communication development (e.g., Bruner, 1983a; Newson & Newson, 1975). Werner and Kaplan (1963), for example, argue that earlyexchanges "have the characterof'sharing'experienceswith the Otherrather than of'communicating' messages to the Other" (p. 42). According to this view, acts ofreference emerge in a social context as children and their communicative partners share concrete objects. Several years ago, we began to examine systematically infants' conventionalized acts and the context in which they appear. We sought such empirical information because it may help explain how infants overcome a difficult attentional problem inherent in learning to communicate. Referential communication demands attention both to a shared topic (an object or event) and to a partner. Yet the skill of coordinating attention to people and to objects is typically not yet mastered as first words and gestures begin to be used at the end ofthe 1st year ofHfe (Bakeman & Adamson, 1984; Nelson, 1979). One way infants can learn to communicate without continually attending to both people and objects is to rely on more sophisticated partners for support. The baby essentially attends actively only to an object. The partner shares this object withoutdemanding the infant'sattention. In thisway, ihe partner"socializes"the infant's attention, allowing the infant to experience objects in ways he or she might not yet be able to structure without assistance. Moreover, because infant and partner share attention to a common object, the partner is providing the attentional context for the communication ofmessages about objects. In this chapter, we summarize research that documents how 9- to 15month -old infants deploy their attenti9n when they use gestures and words with Theworkreportedherewassupported in partbytheNationalScience Foundation(BNS-8012068and BNS-8300716). 32 L.B. Adamson et al. adult and peer partners. In addition, we discuss a study that examines the relationship betweenobjectsharingduring the preverbal period and variations in early language acquisition. This work supports the view that sharing attention to objects with adults provides infants with a rich context for communication months before infants can routinely coordinate attention to both objects and people. Background: The Socialization of Attention Before reviewing our research, we need to "set the stage." Three fundamental psychological processes - attention, socialization, and coordination - playa central role. To introduce how we view each of them, we will assemble a cast of three grand theorists whose ideas have greatly influenced us. The first character is William James. In a sense, he has played the role of "villain" in many contemporary considerations of infants since he is known to developmentalists best for his claim that newborns are "assailed by eyes, ears, nose, skin, and entrails at once" and so feel all is "one great blooming, buzzing confusion" (James, 1890, Vol. I, p. 488). It is unfortunate, we think, that he is not as well remembered for the reason that he came to this conclusion. His rationale is also presented in his 1890 Principles ofPsychology, in a much reprinted chapter on attention. To James, attention is an active psychological process whose function is selection. As an organism directs its attention, the nature of its experience is determined. James summarizes this idea in the following statement: Myexperience is what I agree to attendto. Only those items which I notice shape my mind - without selective interest, experience is an utter chaos (1890, Vol. I, p. 403). But, how do young infants escape the experience of chaos? James did not think that they could until they could analyze the "bloom of confusion." But recent research suggests that even very young infants are "selective," that they have certain adaptive interests, particularly in people. These interests, in turn, suggest that infants do not have to select aspects ofthe environment on their own. Rather caregivers - more experienced in the ways of the world - can serve as guides who help them attend selectively. Perhaps the most powerful statement ofthis view was made by Lev Vygotsky in hissociohistoricaltheory ofthe developmentofhigherpsychological processes. In his work, he repeatedly emphasized the importance ofsocial mediation on a...