Early Communication Development in Infants and Toddlers

**Early Communication Development: 9 to 24 Months**

**Communicative Functions at 9-12 Months (Halliday, 1982)**

• Instrumental: The child attempts to obtain an object out of reach by gesturing and emphasizing the action with body rhythm, repeating the gesture with corresponding vocalizations.
• Regulatory: The child wants the adult to perform a specific action, such as being picked up or having a door opened.
• Interactive: The child tries to maintain contact with what interests them. This includes rituals of greeting, farewell, beginning, and end.
• Personal: The child expresses their individuality through rejection in response to others' proposals or participation, indicating satisfaction or interest in the partner's proposals.

**Communicative Functions in the Second Year (Halliday, 1982)**

• Imaginative: Using language to create their own world through sounds or the meaning of language (e.g., playing with words).
• Heuristic: Asking "why" about things.
• Informative: The child provides information about current or past events.

**First Phase: Adult Interpretation of Child's Behavior**

During the first months of life, infants' actions are not considered to have communicative intentionality. Parents interpret these actions as expressions of needs, feelings, or affection. Social interaction is crucial for children to learn language. When the child begins to speak, there will be continuity in the attribution of intentions.

**Second Phase: Intentionality in Prelinguistic Behaviors**

**Roles of Gestures, Looks, and Vocalizations**

Babies soon realize that their behaviors affect their social environment because adults respond to them. When and how does the transition from unintentional to intentional conduct occur? The non-linguistic means used by children are gestures, looks, and vocalizations.