The Effects of Learning Signs on Infant’s Language Communication Skills and Parent-Infant Interaction

• Main Authors: Wan-Chun Lai, 賴婉君
• Other Authors: Yu-Ju Chou
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2016
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/66207830667381440421

碩士 === 國立新竹教育大學 === 幼兒教育學系碩士班 === 104 === The main purpose of this study is to understand the effects of learning baby signs on infants’ language communication skills and parent-child interaction. First, investigate the 40 children who did and did not participate in baby signs course using Mandarin-Chinese Communicative Developmental Inventory’s data to analyze the effects on their language communication skills. Second, investigate the 40 children who did and did not participate in baby signs course using Caregiver-Child Affect, Responsiveness, and Engagement Scale (C-CARES) to analyze and study the video-taped parent-child interaction. The study indicated that in terms of language communication skills, baby signs course is able to improve infant’s “Vocabulary Comprehension” and “Vocabulary Production” through concentrated and efficient interaction in a short period of time. On the other hand, “Understanding of Daily Expressions” and “Expression of Communicative Intents” require a longer period of time to be improved. Both groups of infants improved on “Understanding of Daily Expressions”, “Vocabulary Comprehension” and “Expression of Communicative Intents”, but the experimental group improved more than the control group. In parent-child interaction, the research groups the infants into infant group and child group based on their ages. The infant group are under 12 months old, and the child group are over 12 months old. Baby sign course has an instant affect on infants’ “Persistence”; caregivers of the infant group’s “Negative Interactive Behavior”; children’s “Emotional Attunement” and “Positive Interactive Behavior”; caregivers of the child group’s “Positive Psychological Behavior” and “Positive Interactive Behavior”. During follow-up test, the experimental group performed better than the control group on infants’ “Positive Interactive Behavior”, “Persistence”, “Involvement with toys”, “Participation with Caregiver”, and “Positive Interactive Behavior”. The score decline on “Negative Affect” is also more evident than the control group. Caregivers of the infant group were significantly affected on “Responsiveness to Vocalizations”, “Negative Affect”, “Participation”, “Teasing”, “Intrusiveness”, “Negatively Loaded on Flexibility”, and “Negative Interactive Behavior”. As for the child group’s “Amount of Communication”, “Quality of Language”, “Positive Interactive Behavior”, “Positive Psychological Behavior” and “Persistence”; caregivers’ “Negative Verbal Statements”, “Negative Touch”, “Structuring”, and “Negatively Loaded on Flexibility”, all require a longer period of time to show the difference. The main reason is that infants’ development and learning; parent-child interaction require more time and training for the results to be shown. This study not only improved my own understanding of infant language development institutions and parent-child interactions, but also provides references for parents and infant educators.