The Importance Of Proto-conversations For The Baby
Between 18 and 24 months of life, babies begin to develop language proper. However, before this, there are preverbal approaches and forms of communication that are also of great importance. Proto-conversations arise naturally between the baby and his main caregivers, even when they are not aware of all the information that they are transmitting to the little one with them.
Every stimulus and interaction with the environment molds the child and favors his progress at the cognitive level. Thus, the fact that the mother involves him in communication situations even before he is able to speak has a positive impact on his abilities. Let’s see it in depth.
What are proto conversations?
Before the child begins to communicate fully and formally, a kind of preverbal training takes place. In it, he learns basic aspects of social interaction that he will integrate to use in the future. Thus, proto-conversations are simply communicative exchanges that take place between the baby and its main caregivers.
They usually appear around 8 or 9 months of life, therefore, the child is not yet able to articulate words or fully understand their meaning. Even so, the importance of proto-conversations lies in the fact that a communication situation is generated in which the baby is involved.
Mothers naturally start engaging their little ones in these conversations from an early age. They take any gesture or sound of the child as a communication and, therefore, respond to him. In short, they conceive the child as a conversational partner and maintain an interaction with him.
The sounds made by the child are not words and have no meaning. In addition, although the mother uses words, they only serve a stimulating function through the intonation and rhythm with which they are produced. That is, the meanings of the sounds emitted by both do not matter as much; what is relevant is what the exchange teaches.
What do children learn through proto-conversations?
The fundamental thing about a protoconversación is that the child makes a sound or makes a gesture with a communicative intention. That is, they do it to get the adult’s attention, and when the adult responds, an interaction is initiated.
Thus, the baby learns to initiate and maintain conversations, and to respect the turn to speak. Each emission of the child is taken as a communicative turn and receives a response. Therefore, important elements of any conversation and social interaction are put into practice.
Also, remember that children, during their early years, learn by imitation. In this way, the actions of the adults during the proto-conversation have a direct effect on the child. He observes the intonation, the fluency, the volume of the speech, the gestures that he accompanies. .., and he integrates these aspects. Initially, you will get the information to emulate only from your parents or primary caregivers, but later on you will expand your repertoire from what is observed in other family members and children.
Ultimately, we can say that protoconversations are conversational rehearsals that occur when the child is still unable to speak. Through them, the infant learns and practices important elements of social interaction. And, in addition, he acquires and copies verbal and non-verbal skills of the adult with whom he “talks”.
How can we stimulate language in the preverbal stage?
As we can see, the stage prior to the complete acquisition of language provides an important solid foundation for the child. We must not fall into the error of thinking that because he cannot utter words or form sentences he cannot begin to communicate. So, as parents, we can take several simple actions to stimulate the little one’s socialization.
For this, the best resource will always be play and attention. It is important to interact frequently with the little one, attend and respond to their gestures and sounds, and take them as communication.
Let us give him the opportunity to take turns speaking and allow him to express himself, despite his limited manner. Talking to him frequently will provide him with elements to integrate and imitate, and, on the other hand, stimulating him and allowing him to participate will encourage him to start making more continuous and complex communications.
