To sing or not to sing: Communication in early social interactions

When mothers are in company of their young infants they sing and speak to them in an infantdirected style. Interestingly, both infant-directed speech and infant-directed singing appear to promote infants attention, regulate their arousal and support interpersonal bonding (Trehub and Trainor, 1998). However, Nakata and Trehub (2004) suggested that the different acoustic and structural properties of ID speech and ID singing might support different patterns of attention and engagement in infants. In fact, ID speech and ID singing might also affect differently communication in early social interaction. On this issue, Longhi (2003) found that singing in interaction is a powerful form of communication when infants are 3-4 months of age but not later when they are 7-8 months of age. Aims The purpose of this study is to explore the nature and development of communication in early social interactions, in particular, how communication emerges in different kind of interactions, and whether communication changes with the infant development. Method 20 mother-infant dyads were tested when infants were about 4 months of age and later when the