On the importance of early childhood communication intentions and how they can be encouraged

 It seems to many of us that babies or toddlers can only be understood from the moment the first words begin to be acquired. But anyone who encounters a baby under the age of one finds that babies can be perceived as very opinionated, and affect the environment long before acquiring first words.

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how does it happen?

Babies make a variety of sounds from birth, such as crying, grunting, whining, humming. In addition, babies show the ability to make eye contact and smile at the person who is interacting with them. The adult caring for the baby interprets the baby's voices and behaviors as meaningful, and this interpretation helps the baby to adopt the behaviors to the situation.

The behaviors of the infant or toddler, which come with the aim of influencing the environment, are called communicative intentions.

"Communication intention" is the person's communication goal, the reason why he maintains communication. There are simple intentions, for example: to gain the attention of some person, and there are complex intentions, for example: to surprise a person.

Media intent can be expressed as an initiative for communication, or as a response to communication on the part of others.

Media intent can be expressed in a variety of forms, such as gestures, voice production, change of facial expression, voting, nodding, and more.

From the age of about nine months, a variety of communicative intentions can be identified in infants.

 

Examples of communicative intentions that can be identified in early childhood:

 Pre-orders: Using another person to achieve a desired object or event.

For example, the baby will point to some object far away from him in order to receive it.

Pre-experience: Using an object or action to gain another person's attention.

For example, the baby produces sounds in order to win a person's look and a smile.

Request: Request objects, events, information, for

example, The baby raises his hands to be taken, produces sounds while playing "Coco" to continue the game.

Rejection. For example: serve the baby a teaspoon with food in his mouth and he closes his mouth and turns his head, or push the hand of the person feeding him.

protest. For example: take the baby out of his arms and he starts beating and crying.

Statement: Naming, providing information. For example, The baby points to a dog to show to another person.

How can the toddler's communication intentions be encouraged and developed?

We will look at the baby or toddler, and make eye contact with him. When we look at a baby, we can more easily identify what he means, and adjust our response to it.

We will interpret his behavior, that is, we will behave in a way that we think the baby expects of us, and we will add a verbal interpretation. For example, a toy car is accessible to him and it is said: "Otto, you want a car".

Let's look at the baby's reaction. Once we have interpreted the baby's reaction and acted in a certain way, it is worth seeing his reaction to our action. Is he satisfied? Do we feel we understood him? If not, we will try another interpretation, appropriate to the situation.

We will use the baby's facial expressions and body language to try to understand what he meant.

The more we experience these situations, the more the baby's abilities will develop.

And we too will be able to interpret his intentions more accurately, and we will be able to communicate with him in a better and more enjoyable way.