Science Forums 2

[sigh.ko.blah.grr]

If you want to get waaaaaay down into how babies communicate (which appears to be driven by their need to survive), dig into Margaret Mahler (from the '50s I think) to get grounded, then look at Daniel Stern and Alan Schore, two millennial-era researchers who have really drilled down into this topic.

One of the things one has to keep in mind is that human infants are born with incomplete brains, compared to those of adults. They cannot process with symbolic language (yet), but, boy does their need to get fed, held, burped, and changed motivate them to figure out to communicate in a hurry. Their neuronal stacks actually grow in response to successful "communications" with their caregivers.

Unfortunately, however, their neuronal stacks can also grow "oddly" if their caregivers confuse them with inappropriate, negative or inconsistent responses. See Bruce Perry on "Romanian babies" and all the rest of the wretched stuff that can happen when the feedback loop between Ma and Junior is poorly established. Ta.