Type of Maternal Object Motion During Synchronous Naming Predicts Preverbal Infants' Learning of Word-Object Relations.

Mothers' use of specific types of object motion in synchrony with object naming was examined, along with infants' joint attention to the mother and object, as a predictor of word learning. During a semistructured 3-min play episode, mothers (N = 24) taught the names of 2 toy objects to their preverbal 6- to 8-month-old infants. The episodes were recoded from Gogate, Bolzani, and Betancourt (2006) to provide a more fine-grained description of object motions used by mothers during naming. The results indicated that mothers used forward/downward and shaking motions more frequently and upward and backward motions less frequently in temporal synchrony with the spoken words. These motions likely highlight novel word-object relations. Furthermore, maternal use of shaking motions in synchrony with the spoken words and infants' ability to switch gaze from mother to object contributed to infants' learning of the word-object relations, as observed on a posttest. Thus, preverbal infants' learn word-object relations within an embodied system involving tightly coupled interaction between infants' perception and joint attention, and specific properties of caregivers' naming. 2008 International Society on Infant Studies.