Infant-directed song potentiates infants' selective attention to adults' mouths over the first year of life.

ABSTRACT: The mechanisms by which infant-directed (ID) speech and song support language development in infancy are poorly understood, with most prior investigations focused on the auditory components of these signals. However, the visual components of ID communication are also of fundamental importance for language learning: over the first year of life, infants' visual attention to caregivers' faces during ID speech switches from a focus on the eyes to a focus on the mouth, which provides synchronous visual cues that support speech and language development. Caregivers' facial displays during ID song are highly effective for sustaining infants' attention. Here we investigate if ID song specifically enhances infants' attention to caregivers' mouths. 299 typically developing infants watched clips of fe

SUBMITTER: Alviar C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10276172 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature