Abstract
Continuity in the transition from preverbal interaction to verbal communication may be conceptualized in several ways, e.g., by constancy in the child’s gestural or vocal forms, or by consistency in parental interpretation of the child’s acts. This chapter discusses one particular way in which such continuity may be understood. The transition could be mediated by early forms of interaction setting the occasion for incidental learning: the link between the early forms and the subsequent development of speech being the parental reactions to the infants’ acts. Recently such a view has been associated with the overinterpretation hypothesis, which emphasizes that parents assign a specific meaning to an infant’s act, even though it may not be reasonable to assume that the act initially was performed with any specific intention on the child’s part (cf. Newson, 1974). Parental overinterpretation has been considered to advance the development of communication, shaping it into more culturally accepted forms by facilitating discovery of the rules of discourse and reinforcing more mature forms.
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Martinsen, H., Smith, L. (1989). Studies of Vocalization and Gesture in the Transition to Speech. In: von Tetzchner, S., Siegel, L.S., Smith, L. (eds) The Social and Cognitive Aspects of Normal and Atypical Language Development. Springer Series in Cognitive Development. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3580-4_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3580-4_5
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