Metáfora conceptual

The first words of young children are produced to convey the same intentions as the preverbal communication signals outlined above, supplementing, but not replacing, the child's existing modes of communication (Bruner, 1975; Wetherby et al, 1988). From approximately two years of age children begin to combine words in simple phrases and at this point further functions of communication are produced in conversation Children have been observed to request information, including clarification of a speaker's previous message, and to provide clarification when they have not been heard or understood, at this stage of expressive language development (Dale, 1980; Wetherby et al, 1988).

At around the same time as these linguistic developments are occurring changes in cognitive skills are also noticeable. From approximately one year of age, when first words appear, infants begin to relate objects together in play, by putting bricks in a box for example. This relational play then develops into the beginnings of pretend play in which children relate objects to themselves, as seen when infants put a brush to their hair or pretend to eat from a spoon. From eighteen months of age more sophisticated pretend play is observed, in which children incorporate other people into their play schemes (eg. Bates et al, 1975). They may begin to brush other people's hair, and give their teddies a drink at this point. Later, more complex routines emerge, in which, for example, children may take off a doll's clothes, pretend to give it a bath, wash its hair and then dry the doll with a towel. As these complex play routines appear word combinations are heard and early syntactic forms are produced (Bloom, 1973; Shore, O'Connell & Bates, 1984), in addition to the emergence of the new communicative functions described above.

As with preverbal modes of communication, expressive language is used to code new information that is not given by the context of the interaction (Greenfield, 1979). Spoken language is, however, more explicit than any other mode of communication (Dunst, 1985, Sperber & Wilson, 1986). It allows speakers to be precise about what they mean to convey and enables listeners to interpret speakers' messages easily Non-verbal communication signals do not have such precise referents as spoken language, they are not always able to convey the most relevant information, and are consequently weaker than spoken signals in general (Sperber & Wilson, 1986). Thus, depending on the message to be conveyed and its context, some intentions may be intelligible from nonverbal signals, and others may be more easily interpreted with the addition of spoken language or by verbal signals alone. Verbal children have the means to switch between modes, or to combine them, depending on the needs of the situation, to make their messages explicit to their listeners. For example, if a child pointed towards a group of toys to request a car, the adult may understand that the child wants to be given one of them but may not be sure which particular toy is required. If however, the child also said "car" the adult would be in no doubt which toy to give.

The explicit nature of spoken language may be particularly useful in the production of the later developing functions of communication, requests for information, requests for clarification and provision of clarification. Although theoretically each of these functions could be produced nonverbally by infants, and have been observed in the nonverbal signals of young hearing impaired children (Curtiss, Prutting & Lowell, 1979), spoken language may facilitate their expression. For example, when pointing to a picture a child may want an adult to tell them something about it; without language however, this signal could be

misinterpreted as a request for joint attention. Similarly, if a child has not heard what an adult has said and looks at the adult with a puzzled expression, the adult may not see the child's signal and continue with the conversation. Had the child signalled their request for clarification verbally, saying "huh?" or "what?", or by repeating what they thought they had heard, the adult would have been prompted to repair the conversation.

Expressive language is also very useful in providing clarification. It has been observed that from the onset of their children's expressive language parents most frequently seek clarification of children's messages by repeating the utterance, with the implication "is this what you said?". To such requests for confirmation children need only answer 'yes' or 'no', and appropriate responses have been observed from the single word stage of language development (Cherry, 1979; Gallagher, 1981; Shatz & O'Reilly, 1990). When parents have not heard or understood a message they may use a neutral request for clarification, such as "what?" or "huh?". In response to these queries children have been noted to repeat their message or revise it in some way. Preverbal children have to rely on gestures and vocalisations as their most explicit signals, and may have no choice but to repeat a potentially unintelligible message. Verbal children also have the option of revising their message in some way, possibly by changing what they said and/or adding or omitting gesture, to make their message clearer. When they are able to use word combinations, children can omit part of their utterance, add to it or change its constituent parts (eg. Anselmi, Tomasello & Acunzo, 1986; Gallagher, 1977, 1981; Konefal & Pokes, 1984; Tomasello, Anselmi & Farrar, 1985). Children's choice of which strategy to use may depend on whether they think they have not been heard or have not been understood. With increasing age and linguistic and cognitive skills children develop more repair

strategies to call upon in times of communication breakdown, and will revise their message in different ways, clarifying different parts of the utterance, when faced with repeated requests for clarification of an individual utterance (Brinton, Fujiki, Loeb & Winkler, 1986). The acquisition of these later developing functions of communication enables children to convey their ideas in conversation, and to take an equal role in introducing and maintaining topics and in negotiating communication breakdown.

Changes in the structure of conversations between young children and their parents have also been observed with the onset of language. The new functions allow children to initiate more conversations, and fi'om twelve to thirty months an increase in the frequency of initiations produced by children, an increase in the proportion of initiations, and a decrease in the ratio of mother: child initiations have been observed (Clarke-Stewart & Hevey, 1981; Wetherby et al, 1988). This would suggest that as children develop their communication skills they become more equal interaction partners. Further changes have also observed in the physical situations in which conversations take place with regard to the proximity of communication partners. As children in the first two years of life are acquiring more sophisticated gross and fine motor skills they are able to act more independently, and as these developments occur their parents gradually increase the physical distance between themselves and their children in conversation (Clarke-Stewart & Hevey, 1981).

5. Summary

The above brief description has shown how children's early communication skills are developed in interaction with adults, usually the children's parents. In highly structured interaction routines children learn to interpret their parents' actions, and parents shape infants' turns in the routines into conventional communication signals. From the earliest reaching to request objects other functions of communication are developed, and more complex modes are used to express them. It has been suggested that for this communication development to be facilitated children must produce easily recognisable signals, which are predictable and readable, and parents must produce responses that their infants will be able to predict and that will lead to a positive outcome in the interaction (the readability hypothesis). As readable and predictable signals depend upon consistent and clear motor behaviours being produced in the many different situations in which parent-child interaction occurs, children's developing motor control has an important role to play in early communication. In the following chapter the effects on communication of motor impairment arising from cerebral palsy will be considered.