Preverbal Vocalizations Research Articles

Variaciones de las vocalizaciones del bebé y del habla materna en función de la depresión posparto: Modulaciones según edad y sexo infantil

El presente trabajo indaga sobre la influencia de la depresion posparto (DPP) materna en las caracteristicas prosodicas del Habla Dirigida al Bebe (HDB) y las emisiones preverbales infantiles en diversos contextos de interaccion madre-hijo/a. Participaron 40 madres y sus bebes entre 3 y 6 meses de edad. Las madres fueron evaluadas con la Escala de DPP de Edimburgo (Cox, Holden y Sagoysky, 1987) y las diadas madre-hijo fueron filmadas en sesiones de juego no estructurado; 27 madres no presentaron indicadores de DPP y 13, si. Las madres con DPP emitieron menor cantidad de vocalizaciones que las del grupo control y presentaron menor intensidad media y maxima al hablarle a sus bebes de 5-6 meses y esto fue particularmente observable en bebes varones (p < .07). Ademas, estas madres usaron menos curvas descendentes al dirigirse a bebes mas pequenos (3-4 meses) y curvas ascendentes y descendentes al dirigirse a sus hijos varones (p < .01). En los bebes –tanto en los de 5-6 meses como en varones– (con madres con DPP se observo menor produccion de emisiones preverbales, aunque sin ser significativa. La DPP materna impacto en los bebes mas pequenos observandose una disminucion de la frecuencia fundamental (p < .01) y de las intensidades media y maxima, pero solo en bebes varones (p < .05). Tambien se hallo una ausencia de curvas con forma de U en los varones e hijos de madres con DPP (p < .05). Aparentemente, la DPP afecta el HDB materno, el que varia a nivel acustico y prosodico en funcion de la edad del bebe afectando las emisiones preverbales, siendo mayor el impacto en los varones.

Early Prelingual Auditory Development of Infants and Toddlers With Unilateral Hearing Loss.

To assess the influence of congenital and permanent unilateral hearing loss (UHL) on early prelingual auditory development (EPLAD) of infants and toddlers. A cross-sectional and case-controlled design. Tertiary referral center. Sixty-five young children (median with interquartile ranges: 4.4 [3.3, 7.7] mo) with UHL, 70 children (6.0 [3.8, 9.0] mo) with bilateral normal hearing (BNH) and 32 children (5.8 [3.9, 12.1] mo) with bilateral mild hearing loss (BMHL) were enrolled and grouped. Children with UHL were further grouped according to the severity of impairment and the ear that was impaired. Children involved were assessed by the 9-item Infant-toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale (ITMAIS). 1) EPLAD assessed by ITMAIS, 2) functions of sound detection, sound discrimination and identification and preverbal vocalization assessed by dividing ITMAIS into three sections, 3) trajectories of EPLAD estimated by ITMAIS. Compared with BNH, children with UHL lagged behind in the function of sound discrimination and identification, preverbal vocalization, as well as trajectory of EPLAD. Children with severe to profound UHL exhibited more severe EPLAD handicaps than children with mild to moderate losses. The auditory functions and EPLAD trajectory of children with UHL were similar to those with BMHL. Children with congenital and permanent UHL demonstrate delays in EPLAD, which are evident soon after birth before initial development of speech and language. The ITMAIS is an appropriate tool to identify these delays both in children with unilateral and bilateral hearing impairment.

Sequences of toddler negative emotion and parent-toddler verbal communication during a waking day.

Although the second year of life is characterized by dramatic changes in expressive language and by increases in negative emotion expression, verbal communication and emotional communication are often studied separately. With a sample of twenty-five one-year-olds (12-23months), we used Language Environment Analysis (LENA; Xu, Yapanel, & Gray, 2009, Reliability of the LENA™ language environment analysis system in young children's natural home environment. LENA Foundation) to audio-record and quantify parent-toddler communication, including toddlers' vocal negative emotion expressions, across a full waking day. Using a multilevel extension of lag-sequential analysis, we investigated whether parents are differentially responsive to toddlers' negative emotion expressions compared to their verbal or preverbal vocalizations, and we examined the effects of parents' verbal responses on toddlers' subsequent communicative behavior. Toddlers' negative emotions were less likely than their vocalizations to be followed by parent speech. However, when negative emotions were followed by parent speech, toddlers were most likely to vocalize next. Post hoc analyses suggest that older toddlers and toddlers with higher language abilities were more likely to shift from negative emotion to verbal or preverbal vocalization following parent response. Implications of the results for understanding the parent-toddler communication processes that support both emotional development and verbal development are discussed.

Production of Infant Scale Evaluation (PRISE) in Persian normal hearing children: A validation study

IntroductionProduction of Infant Scale Evaluation (PRISE) is a popular parent-report scale used to assess the pre-first word vocalization of children. There is not any tool to assess pre-verbal vocalizations in Persian speaking children. Therefore, considering the two important roles of pre-verbal vocalizations both in the early diagnosis of hearing impairment and in measuring the effectiveness of CIs and habilitation programs, we aimed to adapt and validate the PRISE questionnaire on Persian normal hearing children aged 3–18 months and estimate the PRISE's normative distribution for them. MethodsThe research was administered as a cross-sectional study. Back translation method was used to develop the Persian version of the PRISE (PRISE-P). Six hundred and forty 3–18 month old Persian speaking children were recruited through consecutive sampling method. All of the children had passed the universal newborn hearing screening. According to the standard developmental test, all of the children had normal development. The internal consistency of the scale was measured through the Cronbach's alpha. The convergent validity was analyzed through comparing the PRISE scores with the Persian version of the Auditory Behavior in Everyday Life (ABEL-P). ResultsThe Cronbach's alpha value of the PRISE was 0.88. The PRISE corrected item-total correlations were significantly high ranging from 0.86 to 0.89. A significant correlation was found between the PRISE-P and the ABEL-P total scores (r = 0.628). There was a high positive correlation between the PRISE total scores and the children's age (r = 0.791). ConclusionThe PRISE-P is a valid and reliable tool to assess the pre-verbal vocalizations development in Persian speaking children aged 3 months and more.

Evolutional View of Preverbal Vocalizations in Human Infants

Evolutional View of Preverbal Vocalizations in Human Infants

Delay in auditory behaviour and preverbal vocalization in infants with unilateral hearing loss.

To evaluate the impact of unilateral hearing loss (UHL) on early aural/oral communication skills of infants by comparing performance to infants with bilateral normal hearing (BNH). Thirty-four infants with UHL (median age 9.4mo, 25th-75th centile 7.34-12.15) and 331 control infants with BNH (median age 9mo, 6.0-13.38) were divided into two subgroups based on risk factors known to cause developmental delay: low risk and high risk. Early auditory skills and preverbal vocalizations were assessed using two parent questionnaires: the Infant-Toddler Meaningful Auditory Integration Scale and the Production of Infants Scale Evaluation. Of the infants with UHL, 21% showed delays in auditory behaviour and 41% delays in preverbal vocalizations, compared to their peers with BNH (p<0.01). After adjusting for risk level, delayed auditory behaviour and preverbal vocalizations were approximately four and nine times more common in infants with UHL compared to BNH respectively (p<0.01). This is the first study to show that infants with UHL are at higher risk of delay in early aural/oral communication abilities compared to infants with BNH even in the absence of other known risk factors for developmental delay. This has important implications for early intervention and habilitation of infants with UHL, in order to reduce some of the negative long-term consequences of what was once considered 'minor' hearing loss.

Decoding of Baby Calls: Can Adult Humans Identify the Eliciting Situation from Emotional Vocalizations of Preverbal Infants?

Preverbal infants often vocalize in emotionally loaded situations, yet the communicative potential of these vocalizations is not well understood. The aim of our study was to assess how accurately adult listeners extract information about the eliciting situation from infant preverbal vocalizations. Vocalizations of 19 infants aged 5-10 months were recorded in 3 negative (Pain, Isolation, Demand for Food) and 3 positive (Play, Reunion, After Feeding) situations. The recordings were later rated by 333 adult listeners on the scales of emotional valence and intensity. Subsequently, the listeners assigned the eliciting situations in a forced choice task. Listeners were almost perfectly able to discriminate whether a recording came from a negative or a positive situation. Their discrimination may have been based on perceived valence as they consistently assigned higher valence when listening to positive, and lower valence when listening to negative, recordings. Ability to identify the particular situation within the negative or positive realm was substantially weaker, with only three of the six situations being discriminated above chance. The best discriminated situation, Play, was associated with high perceived intensity. The weak qualitative discrimination of negative situations seemed to be based on graded perception of negative recordings, from the most intense and unpleasant (assigned to Pain) to the least intense and least unpleasant (assigned to Demand for Food). Parenthood and younger age, but not gender of listeners, had weak positive effects on the accuracy of judgments. Our results indicate that adults almost flawlessly distinguish positive and negative infant sounds, but are rather inaccurate regarding identification of the specific needs of the infant and may normally employ other sensory channels to gain this information.

Early vocalization of preterm infants with extremely low birth weight (ELBW), part II: from canonical babbling up to the appearance of the first word

The aim of this study was to systematically describe the preverbal development of preterm infants from canonical babbling up to the first word and to compare it with that of healthy full-term infants. In addition, the amount of vocalization between the preterm and full-term groups was compared. The sample consisted of 18 preterm infants with extremely low birth weight and 11 full-term infants. The development of preverbal vocalization before variegated babbling did not differ between the groups. Instead, the preterm infants failed to produce more different kinds of canonical syllable types than the full-term infants. However, they showed a larger variance of variegated babbling skills and remained in the babbling phase longer before reaching the first meaningful word compared with the full-term infants. Following the onset of canonical babbling, the preterm infants produced fewer vocalizations than the full-term infants and they reached the first word later than the full-term infants.

Vocal Expression of Emotions in Normally Hearing and Hearing-Impaired Infants

The vocalizations of seven normally hearing (NH) and seven severely hearing-impaired (HI) infants were compared to find out the influence of auditory feedback on preverbal utterances. It was tested whether there are general differences in vocalizations between NH and HI infants, and whether specific emotional states affect the vocal production of NH and HI infants in the same way. First, the acoustic structure of the three most common vocal types was analyzed; second, the composition of vocal sequences was examined. Vocal sequence composition turned out to be more affected by hearing impairment than the acoustic structure of single vocalizations. This result indicates that the acoustic structure of preverbal vocalizations is to a great extent predetermined, whereas the composition of vocal sequences is influenced by auditory input.

The Influence of Hearing Impairment on Preverbal Emotional Vocalizations of Infants

The aim of the study was to compare the vocalizations of normally hearing and profoundly hearing-impaired infants in the first year of life. After the first recording all hearing-impaired infants were provided with hearing aids. We focused on three issues: (1) Are there different types of preverbal vocalizations in the vocal repertoire of normally hearing and hearing-impaired infants? (2) Do the vocal types emerge at similar age? (3) Does hearing impairment influence the acoustic structure of the preverbal vocalization types common to normally hearing and hearing-impaired infants? The study shows that both normally hearing and hearing-impaired infants have the same vocal repertoire. Except for babbling, there were no differences in the time of emergence of preverbal utterances. Structural differences could only be found in ‘cries’. In general, it seems that normal auditory input is not essential for the production of single preverbal utterances.

Acoustic Analyses of Developmental Changes and Emotional Expression in the Preverbal Vocalizations of Infants

The nonverbal vocal utterances of seven normally hearing infants were studied within their first year of life with respect to age- and emotion-related changes. Supported by a multiparametric acoustic analysis it was possible to distinguish one inspiratory and eleven expiratory call types. Most of the call types appeared within the first two months; some emerged in the majority of infants not until the 5th (“laugh”) or 7th month (“babble”). Age-related changes in acoustic structure were found in only 4 call types (“discomfort cry,” “short discomfort cry,” “wail,” “moan”). The acoustic changes were characterized mainly by an increase in harmonic-to-noise ratio and homogeneity of the call, a decrease in frequency range and a downward shift of acoustic energy from higher to lower frequencies. Emotion-related differences were found in the acoustic structure of single call types as well as in the frequency of occurrence of different call types. A change from positive to negative emotional state was accompanied by an increase in call duration, frequency range, and peak frequency (frequency with the highest amplitude within the power spectrum). Negative emotions, in addition, were characterized by a significantly higher rate of “crying,” “hic” and “ingressive vocalizations” than positive emotions, while positive emotions showed a significantly higher rate of “babble,” “laugh,” and “raspberry.”

Common features of the amplitude-frequency characteristics of vowels in different forms of speech

According to classical concepts, the relationship between the first two formants is the feature that determines the identification of long vowels in speech. However, the characteristics of vowels may considerably vary depending on the conditions of their production. Thus, the aforementioned features that are valid for adult speech cannot be extended to speech signals with high fundamental frequencies, such as infant speech or singing. On the basis of the studies of preverbal infant vocalizations, singing, and speech imitation by talkingbirds, it is shown that the stable features of vowel-like sounds are the positions and amplitude ratios of the most pronounced spectral maxima (including those corresponding to the fundamental frequency). The results of the studies suggest that precisely these features determine the categorical identification of vowels. The role of the relationship between the frequency and amplitude characteristics in the vowel identification irrespective of the way the vowel is produced and the age and state of the speaker, as well as in the case of speech imitation by talkingbirds, is discussed.

Vocal atypicalities of preverbal autistic children.

This study was designed to evaluate the nature of early vocal behaviors in young children with autism. Recent methodological and conceptual advances in the study of infant preverbal vocalizations were used to provide a detailed examination of the vocal behavior of young preverbal children with autism and comparison children with developmental delays. Results revealed that children with autism did not have difficulty with the expression of well-formed syllables (i.e., canonical babbling). However, children with autism did display significant impairments in vocal quality (i.e., atypical phonation). Specifically, autistic children produced a greater proportion of syllables with atypical phonation than did comparison children. Consistent with prior reports, the children with autism also displayed a deficit in joint attention behaviors. Furthermore, the atypicalities in the vocal behavior of children with autism appeared to be independent of individual differences in joint attention skill, suggesting that a multiple process model may be needed to describe early social-communication impairments in children with autism. Data are discussed in terms of their implications for future theoretical and applied research, including efforts to enhance the specificity of early diagnostic procedures.

Social Interactions of Guatemalan Infants

The behavior of 52 rural Guatemalan infants of ages 8, 12, and 16 months was observed and recorded in their homes. Most interactions initiated by the caretaker seemed to consist largely of caretaking activities, and a relatively large verbal component was evident only with increasing age. Specific caretakers were associated with specific types of social interactions. The mother was the primary caretaker, being responsible for most of the carrying, questioning, ordering, teaching, and prohibiting of her son or daughter. Interactions initiated by the infant generally included touching and preverbal vocalizations. Most social play and touching involved siblings. Visual interest, vocalizing, and smiling were greatest when directed to a person outside the nuclear family. The father was found to have little effect on the social environment of the infants observed.

EFFECT OF TRAINING ON ABILITY TO IDENTIFY PREVERBAL VOCALIZATIONS.

SUMMARYUsing test subjects with and without experience in baby care, it has been possible to demonstrate the effect of experience on identification of the meanings of babies' vocal responses in the preverbal stage. The responses selected as test items were typical birth, hunger, pain and pleasure vocalizations. The multiple‐choice technique was used, the subjects being asked to identify the meanings of 24 vocal items which they heard from a magnetic tape. In general, both women and men with experience did better than the inexperienced.RÉSUMÉEffet de l'entrainement sur l'aptitude à identifier les vocalisations préverbialesEn utilisant des sujets‐tests avec et sans expérience de puériculture, il a été possible de démontrer l'effet de l'expérience sur le faculté d'identifier le sens des réponses vocales des bébés au stage préverbial. Les réponses choisies pour le test étaient des vocalisations typiques de faim, douleur et plaisir. La technique du choix multiple était employée, on demandait aux sujets d'identifier le sens de 24 vocalisations enregistrées sur bande magnét tique. En général, les femmes et les hommes expérimentés avaient de meilleurs résultasque les inexpérimentés.