Infant Gestures
Infant Gestures - Related Videos
07:25
Habituation: Studying Infants Before They Can Talk
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2023
Source: Laboratories of Nicholaus Noles, Judith Danovitch, and Cara Cashon—University of Louisville Infants are one of the purest sources of information about human thinking and learning, because they’ve had very few life experiences. Thus, researchers are interested in gathering data from infants, but as participants in experimental research, they are a challenging group to study. Unlike older children and adults, young infants are unable to reliably speak, understand speech, or even move and...
12:55
P50 Sensory Gating in Infants
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Cited by 5 •
2013
Methods to record auditory P50 sensory gating, a physiological marker of cerebral inhibition which reflects early stages of attention, are described.
08:10
Using Your Head: Measuring Infants' Rational Imitation of Actions
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2023
Source: Laboratories of Judith Danovitch and Nicholaus Noles—University of Louisville One of the main challenges of infancy is to learn how to achieve one’s goals in the world, whether they are to pick up a toy or to express desires to another person, and one of the most powerful tools in this learning process is imitation. However, imitation is not always as simple as copying other people’s actions; it is also necessary to realize that goals and intentions guide behavior. The world is a...
06:34
Infant Auditory Processing and Event-related Brain Oscillations
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Cited by 30 •
2015
High-density electroencephalography (dEEG) is being used increasingly to study brain development and plasticity in the early years of life. Here we present an application of sophisticated analysis techniques that builds on traditional EEG recording to understand the oscillatory dynamics of rapid auditory processing in the infant brain.
09:18
Electrophysiological Measurements and Analysis of Nociception in Human Infants
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Cited by 21 •
2011
The assessment and treatment of pain in infants is difficult because infants cannot verbally report their experience. In this video we describe quantitative electrophysiological methods and analysis techniques that can be used to measure the response to noxious events from the infant nervous system.
FAQs
Their communicative effect depends on more than movement alone. An infant's gesture becomes informative when it is coordinated with gaze, vocalization, and a partner's response. These linked signals can direct another person's attention, indicate what the infant intends, and create a feedback loop in which the infant learns that communication can influence social interaction.
Caregiver responsiveness helps shape the communicative opportunities that gestures create. When a partner notices a movement and responds, the infant receives information about how signals work in social exchange. This makes partner behavior relevant to research on early communication, because observations can examine both the infant's actions and the caregiver's contribution to developing interaction.
Variation in these behaviors gives psychologists a way to examine individual differences in early communication. Researchers can consider how infants direct attention, signal intentions, or participate in exchanges, then relate those patterns to social cognition and language development. Such observations may also help describe communication strengths or identify potential concerns within early childhood development.
Researchers examine infant gestures in two complementary settings: naturalistic observation and structured tasks. Naturalistic observation captures communication during social interaction, whereas structured tasks provide a focused situation for examining how infants direct attention, signal intentions, and respond to partners. Together, these approaches connect observed behavior with questions about social cognition, language development, and caregiver responsiveness.
Naturalistic observation is especially useful when the research question concerns communication as it unfolds with a partner. Investigators can examine the coordination of movement, gaze, vocalization, and response within social interaction. This approach can clarify how infants participate in exchanges and how caregiver responsiveness relates to early communicative development.
Structured tasks provide a focused context for examining comparable aspects of communication. Researchers can study whether infants direct another person's attention, signal an intention, or engage with a partner's response. In psychology, these observations support developmental research and may help identify early communication strengths or potential concerns while recognizing individual differences in how infants communicate.