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Communication changes when infants begin to walk.

Kelsey L West1, Jana M Iverson2

  • 1Department of Psychology, New York University, New York, NY, USA.

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Summary

Learning to walk significantly boosts infant gesture development and communication with caregivers. This milestone enhances exploration and elicits richer verbal responses from parents, impacting early development.

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caregiver-infant interactionsdevelopmental cascadesgesturesinfant communicationmotor developmentvocalizations

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Area of Science:

  • Developmental Psychology
  • Infant Communication
  • Motor Development

Background:

  • Locomotion enables infants to explore their environment more extensively.
  • The onset of walking may trigger significant changes in infant communication and caregiver interactions.
  • Previous research has not fully explored the communication shifts coinciding with the acquisition of independent walking.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To identify a developmental inflection point in infant communication and caregiver responses associated with the onset of walking.
  • To analyze changes in gesture and vocalization growth rates post-walking onset.
  • To examine the coordination of communication with locomotion and its effect on caregiver contingent responses.

Main Methods:

  • Longitudinal study tracking 25 infants over 7 months around the average walking onset age of 11.76 months.
  • Quantified growth rates of gestures and vocalizations before and after infants began walking.
  • Observed and analyzed the coordination of infant communication (gestures, vocalizations) with locomotion and caregiver responses.

Main Results:

  • A substantial increase in the pace of gesture growth, but not vocalization growth, was observed after infants started walking.
  • Infants increasingly coordinated gestures and vocalizations with locomotion, such as walking to a caregiver to present an object.
  • Caregivers provided more contingent verbal input during the walking months compared to the crawling months.
  • The observed communication changes were more pronounced in infants who started walking at later ages.

Conclusions:

  • Learning to walk represents a critical developmental period marked by novel forms of active infant communication.
  • The onset of walking leads to increased opportunities for caregiver contingent responses, providing richer verbal input.
  • Developmental changes in communication following the acquisition of walking are amplified in later walkers.