A MAGNETIC RECORDING AND ANALYSIS OF THE PREVERBAL UTTERANCES OF AN INFANT.

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A MAGNETIC RECORDING AND ANALYSIS OF THE PREVERBAL UTTERANCES OF AN INFANT.

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A r t h u r Wilson, 1 91 3 .'xagnetic r e c o r d i n g a nd a na lysis of t'-e p r e v e r b e l u t t e r a n c e s o f an infant, N e w Yo rk, I9lf9 « x 2A5 t y p e w r i t t e n leaves, illusc •

29or.-. _ - ‘''-sis (?h,D«) - N e w Y o r k U n i v e r ­ sity, S c h o o l of E d uc a ti on , 1950,. E i c i i o g r a p h y : p^iolp-lobc

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Xerox University Microfilms,

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A r b o r ,

Michigan 48106

d i s s e r t a t i o n h a s been m ic r o f ilm e d e x a c t l y a s r e c e i v e d .

A MAGNETIC RECORDING AND ANALYSIS OF THE 11 PREVERBAL UTTERANCES OF AN INFANT

:s ARTHUR W.JLMIP : ,_ S . M

. 3 t;

;

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the \

requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the School of Education of New York University

1949

PLEASE NOTE: Some pages may have in d istinct

p rint.

F i l m e d as r e c e i v e d .

U niversity M icrofilm s,

A X e ro x E d u c a t i o n Company

Susan Carol ffapteyn Age

3 months

PREFACE

The author wishes to express his appreciation to the many individ­ uals who have worked with him in the carrying out of this research. Foremost in offering stimulating suggestions, careful criticism and constant encouragement has been the Comities Chairman, Or. Lou LaBrant. Dr. John Rockwell and Dr. Alice V. Kellher, members of the Committee, have given the finest constructive suggestions as the plan for the research matured. Hr. and Mrs. Arthur Kapteyn, parents of Susan

Carol, the infant

studied, have put themselves to almost endless inconvenience to guarantee the accuracy and comprehensive scope of the data samplings. Hr. Raymond Murphy, representative of the O'Brien Sales Corporation, provided the fine instrument on which the wlre-reoordlngs were obtained. Hr. Ralph K. Potter, Mr. John Steinberg and Mr. Gordon Peterson, of Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc., made the Sound Spectrograph available and gave most helpful assistance and advice on the use of that instrument and the interpretation of the Spectrograms thus obtained. The greatest debt of all, however, is owed to Susan Carol, represent­ ative in this instance of the miracle of birth and growth.

Baldwin, Hew York September 15, 1949.

Arthur W. Lynip

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter

I

II

Topic

Page

INTRODUCTION ,............................ Dearth of information on ontogeneeis .......... • of language Causes for lack of authoritative research ..... Use and inadequacy of International Phonetic Alphabet ........................... Conditions to be satisfied before scientific study is possible ........................ Record cutting ssqperlmsnts Values of magnetic recording instrument for this field .......... Description of Sound Spectrograph .......... Value of Sound Spectrograph in this field ...... HANDBOOK OF OBSERVATIONAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL DATA RELATED TO THE RECORDINGS OF THE UTTERANCES OF SUSAN CAROL KAPTEYN ........................... Handbook description ............... Recording 1, Birthcry......................... Recording 2, Early crying ................... Recordings 3 and 4, Early crying ....... Recording 5# "Hunger" crying............... Recording 6, Crying ..... Discussion on differentiation in crying......... Recording 7, "Attention" crying ................ Recording 8, "Hunger" crying ................... Recording 9* "Attention" crying .............. Recording 10* "Attention" crying Recording 11, First non-crying utterance.... Recording 12, Single syllable sounds ......... Recording 13, Single syllable sounds ...... Analysis by use of Speotrograa............... Recording 14, Single syllable sounds ........... Recording 15, "Hunger" and "Attention" crying .. Recording 16, Deleted recording ............ Recording 17, Independent single syllable sounds Discussion of early utterances ................. Recording 18, Early babbling ..... Recording 19, Early babbling................. Recording 20, Babbling ......................... Recording 21, Vocalisations while playing with mother ...... ••••••••••....

Ir

1 1 2 3 5 6 6 7 8

9 9 12 15 17 18 21 22 24 25 27 29 30 31 33 34 35 37 38 39 40 42 43 44 45

TABLE OF CONTENTS (continued) Chapter II

Topic Babbling ......... Babbling .... Babbling .... Babbling .... Identification of Sounds ......... Babbling ...... Babbling Babbling............... Early imitation .................. Imitation ....... Vocalizations while alone ........ Imitationof mother .............. Imitationof mother ...... Imitationof mother .... Imitationof mother ...... ....... Imitationof mother Imitationof mother ....... Imitationof mother ............ Imitationof mother ........ Imitationof mother ......... Use of understandable w o r d s

47 48 49 50 51 52 54 56 58 59 60 62 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72

III

SUMMARY........................................ ...... Procedure used Use of Magnetic Recorder and Sound Spectrograph,

73 73 75

IV

CONCLUSIONS...................... Impact of this Research on previous findings ... Character of infant utterances ....... Nature of imitation .........

76 76 77 79

V

COMPARATIVE REVIEW OF RESEARCHES ON PRE-VERBAL UTTERANCES OF INFANTS .......................... Bateman, "A Child's Progress in Speech" ....... Gesell, The Mental Growth of the Pre-School Child ...................................... Buhler, The First Year of L i f e ............ Shirler. The First Two Years ............ Gesell, Infant Behavior............ Lewis. Infant Speech ........ *..... Leopold, Speech Development £f & Child Irwin and Chen, Various articles ...... Contribution of this Research ............

VI

Reoording 22, Recording 23, Recording 24, Recording 25, Discussion on Recording 26, Recording 27, Recording 28, Recording 29, Discussion of Recording 30, Recording 31, Recording 32, Reoording 33, Recording 34, Recording 35, Recording 36, Reoording 37, Recording 38, Recording 39, Recording 40,

Page

PROJECTION ..................................... Possibilities for application of findings ..... Study of infant crying ..... Study of one-syllable utterances ......



81 81 83 84 85 87 89 91 93 96 98 98 100 101

TABLE OF CONTENTS (continued) Chapter VI

Topic Study ofbabbling................ Study of imitation ..... General conclusion............

Page 101 101 102

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................

104

APPENDIX...........................

107

APPENDIX II ....................................

121

APPENDIX III ..........................

123

APPENDIX IV ....................................

125

vi

ILLUSTRATIONS

Photographs

Susan Carol Kapteyn, Age 3 months Susan

Carol Kaptqyn, Age 10 months .......

vii

Frontispiece Appendix IV

ILLUSTRATIONS Spectrograms

Number 1

•ge

Topic Birthcry

..............

12

.................

12

2

Birthcry

3

"Attention" crying .........

27

U

"Attention" crying........

27

5

First non-crying utterance ,

30

6

Single syllable utterance .,

30

7

Single syllable utterance .,

33

8

Cough-like cries ...........

33

9

"Hunger" crying

.

37

10

"Hunger" crying......... .

37

12

"Attention" crying........

38

13

"Attention" crying .........

38

14

"Attention" crying

..... .

39

15

Early babbling ............

39

16

Early babbling

50

17

Early babbling

....... .... .

50

16

Early babbling........

51

19

Early babbling

51

20

Imitation of mother's voice

62

22

Imitation of mother's voice

62

.

viii

ILLUSTRATIONS (continued) Spectrograms Number

Topic

Page

2U

Imitation of mother's v oice

25

Mother's v oice ..........

65

26

Mother's and baby's voices.......

66

27

Long E sound

66

28

Singsong E sound..........

30

Susan's echo of mother's voice

31

Random sounds ........

33

Imitation of mother's voice

35

Random sounds

36

Imitation of mother's voice

37

Imitation of mother's voice

38

Use of word "cat." ..............................

.........

......

67 .....

67 68

.....

68

......

Pull Scale Spectrogram

ix

65

69 ........ .............

...........

69 70 70

Appendix III

ILLUSTRATIONS

Graph

One method of comparing sounds

x

Appendix II

CHAPTER

I

INTRODUCTION

It has often been pointed out that speech is a form of behavior peculiar only to man.

In spite of the very consnon nature of this behavior­

ism, we know very little about its beginnings and development in the infant. Such scholars as Jeapersen, Bodmer, deLaguna, Gardiner, Paget, Darwin and many others have given much attention to the nature and development of language and languages, but when one turns to the study of the beginnings of language In the infant— -particularly the first twelve months of the infant's life— the list of authorities thins to a very few names. In 1929, McCarthy wrote the first of what are regarded as the two foremost comprehensive surveys of the literature of the field.

From that

well-known article is taken the following summarization: The bulk of the literature on this topic consists of a large group of semi-scientific observational studies of a biographical nature, which appeared during the last decades of the 19th century and the first part of the present century. Many of these records are concerned not only with language development but with motor, social, and emotional development . . . . The studies which give ade­ quate reports of the very early stages, however, are much less numerous than those which are con­ cerned chiefly with the period immediately follow­ ing the appearance of the first word*1 In 1943, Irwin and Chen, men whose present day research probably is

1.

Dorothea McCarthy, "The Vocalisations of Infants," The Psychological Bulletin. XXVI (November, 1929), p7625.

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the most important of recent work in a restricted portion of the larger field made these revealing generalizations: It will be apparent then • • • that there does not exist a large body of data secured from adequate samplings of infants for the purposes of statisti­ cal analysis. Most observations were taken on one or two children. Usually no systematic research methods were formulated, statistical techniques essential to the analysis of mass data are practi­ cally absent, no reliabilities of observers have been established, many observers use an alphabetic rather than a phonetic system of symbols for recording, and most reports indulge in an inordinate amount of interpretation supported by very little empirical material. When Irwin and Chen wrote a review of the literature on this subject in 1943,

2

they found only fifteen titles of books and articles

written since the McCarthy review of 1929.

Of these, seven were written

by themselves. From 1943 to the present there have been written only a few articles on this subject and these have come principally from one or the other of the same two men. The reason wly authoritative information is still lacking has been stated by a number of authors.

Until the present time almost total depend­

ence for the analysis of sound has been on the ear.

Auditory memory, par­

ticularly unreliable, has been called upon for a most critically important

1. 2.

*

Orvis Irwin, Research Sounds for the First Six Months of Life. Psychological Bulletin m V I I I (1941), p. 284. Orvis Irwin and Han Paio Chen, Speech Sound Elements During the First Tear of Life: A Review of the Literature, Journal of Speech Disorders. VIII, (June, 1943), pp. 109-122. Much has been written by these men on the analysis of speech sound elements) special points of comparison between their work and this research will be made under the head, "Compara­ tive Review."

-3 -

task in the study of infant utterance— that of comparing one phase of an infant's development with another phase. Hot only has reliance upon auditory memory stood as an imposing obstacle to the production of an adequate body of information on the development of an infant's speech.

This development has been further

impeded by the lack of a simple means of recording what has been heard. In the main, shorthand notes have been used.

Preyer^ and Stem^ and Hoyer^

used the German language phonemes for their shorthand notations. used the French language phonemes.

Deville^

Shirley5 used the English language

phonemes. Only within the past few years have observers used the Inter­ national Phonetic Alphabet to represent infant pre-speech utterances. Only Irwin and Chen have tried to establish observer reliability by having two observers take notes simultaneously, later comparing results to discover whether they can be agreed upon. It is difficult to describe the confusion presented by an over­ all survey of this literature of the field and yet give due credit to the individual researchers.

The confusion arising from the variety of phonetic

symbols used to describe infant utterances is well shown by the tables

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

William Preyer, The Mind of the Child. Part II. C. Stern and W. Stern, Die Kindersorache» eine Pgychologlache und Spracht-theoretische Onterauchung. A. Hoyer and G. Boyer, tJber die Lallaprache eines Kindes,

h

ia a s E -

1924, 24,363-384.

0. Seville, Notes ear le Developpeaent du Language, Rev. ge LIm . m i l , 1890, and XXIV, 1891. Mary Shirley, The First Two Years. A Study of Twenty Five Babies. V. Il7

-4 -

compiled by Lewis^ and drawn on extensively in the text of this handbook. One may see in these tables such terms as these used to convey what the researcher heard as he listened to the vocalizations of an infants "burred lip sounds,"

"happy intonation,"

uttered with distinctive intonation," etc.

a "labio-lingual sound,"

"aaa,

Although each researcher may

have had in mind a specific sound and its formation to which he referred, none of these terms yields itself to the ready understanding of the reader. The essence of the matter, however, is not that an adequate vocabulary of infant utterances needs to be developed.

It is this: regard­

less of the care taken by note makers, regardless of the shorthand system used, it is totally impractical to try to express in adult phonemes an utterance of an infant prior to his speech maturation.

Infant utterances

are not like any of the well defined values of adult language.

They are

produced differently and they are shaped differently, their relationships with adult sounds are at first only fortuitous.

Infant sounds cannot be

described except in terms of themselves and there is lacking any vocabu­ lary of them.

There is no international phonetic alphabet for the utter­

ances of a baby. This irreconcilability has been recognized by many.

Jespersen

says, "First come single vowels or vowels with single consonants, la, ra, lo, etc.

But my son’s 'la* is not produced with the tongue where our

tongue is for ’1'."^

1. 2.

M. M. Lewis, Infant Speech. Appendix I, pp. 233-242. Otto Jespersen, Language. Its Nature. Development and Origin, p. 1 0 U

Shirley offers a significant consent on this point: The two great drawbacks to the study of speech in infants are the difficulty of stimulating vocal re­ sponses and the difficulty of recording them . . . . When he does ’talk* he pours forth sounds that have no equivalents in civilized alphabets and that, utterly defy spelling and descriptive phrases.

^

And McCarthy clearly states the problem: Obviously, it is quite impossible to take down the sounds as they are made by the infant, in writing, in shorthand, or in a phonetic system. They occur too spontaneously, and too rapidly; they have no meaning to the experimenter, there is no conventional form far them,which can be abbreviated, and probably most serious of all is the subjective factor of the experi­ menter’s error of listening. Even if we had sumbols for the variety of sounds, they would have no meaning to the experimenter if he had _ never experienced the sounds which they represented. It is therefore concluded that before adequate study can be given the pre-speech utterances of infants, two conditions must existi

(1) the

gathering of the data must be devoid of such handicaps as the fallibilities of the human ear and of the use of phonetic systems;

(2) that data must be

analyzed in an objective manner.

This is a fundamental problem in the

study of the growth of language.

Hitherto it has been unsolved.

Those two conditions may now be satisfied by the use of two instru­ ments of recent development:

the magnetic recorder and the Sound Spectro­

graph. It has been pointed out that there exists no phonetic alphabet of infant sounds.

1. 2.

The only adequate approach to the problem for the student

M. M. Shirley, oj>, cit.. p. 47. Dorothea McCarthy, cit.. p. 637

of the ontogenesis of language is that, since there is no vocabulary of such sounds, the sounds must be preserved and studied in their original form.

The magnetic recorder serves this need. Record cutting machines have been tried for this purpose but they

have not given as much information as might be expected.

It has been found

that record cutters have been cumbersome, hard to operate and expensive. Editing of records is nearly impossible. much replaying.

Records lose in fidelity with

Perhaps the greatest drawback of all in the use of record

cutters has been the artificial situation which of necessity must be a part of the process.

When an Infant is placed on exhibition and certain stimuli

provided to induce some form of vocalisation, the element of spontaneity disappears.

It scarcely need be pointed out that language acquisition is a

spontaneous activity and any authentic record of language development must catch spontaneous utterances. The magnetic recorder provides the answer to the problem of gather­ ing data in the form in which it originates, possessing these advantages over the record cutting machines!

(1)

portability and ease in operation

with no loss in fidelity; (2) ease in editing recordings; (3) economy in making recordings; (4) adaptability, requiring no modification of hone environment for making recordings, and (5) inconspicuousness, being in no

way a distraction to the Infant studied. It should be especially noted that the magnetic recorder may be turned on and allowed to run for an hour at a time to catch the elusive utterances made while the infant is at play. Therefore it may be anticipated that samplings of infant utter­ ances taken at JYequent intervals by use of the magnetic recorder over the preverbal period of an infant's development may be expeoted to

provide a library of data that represents normal development towards language. Proper editing of such basic data can result in the production of a compact body of material of an exact, scientific nature.

Using dupli­

cations of the edited product, any number of researchers can examine identi­ cal evidence and build up comparable studies. This approach to accumulating evidence on the nature of the beginnings of language promises a foundation on which many can build. The Sound Spectrograph, the second instrument referred to above, has been developed recently by the Bell Telephone Laboratories, Inc.

In

the study of infant utterances, this instrument can be used to complement the service of the magnetic recorder.

Its function is to provide £ pictorial

ftnAivMlB of sound samplings that have been secured previously on the magnetic recorder. The Spectrograph consists of three units, a power supply, a control panel, and a recording mechanism.

Audio frequency waves are recorded for a

period of 2.4 seconds on a strip of teledeltos current sensitive paper spread over a magnetic drum.

The recorded display indicates frequency and energy

distribution against time.

In addition to this, any section of the energy

display can be selected and a record made on the teledeltos strip of energy in decibels vs. frequency. The essential contribution made to the study of sound elements by the Spectrograph is to spread out a portrayal of the spectrum of a sound so it ie visible to the eye as it is audible to the ear. device have been suggested. people to "read" speech.

Many uses of this

It has been successfully used to train deaf

Students of foreign languages and vocal music

are finding it valuable for the examination of sound identities.

Extensive

researches are under way at the Bell Laboratories on the identification of vowel elements in speech by use of this device. To the study of infant utterances, the Spectrograph holds par­ ticular promise.

Purely subjective judgments have informed us of the range

of sounds produced by the infant during its first twelve months.

The

Spectrograph can give objective data on these sounds so that variations of all sorts can be precisely noted. It will be possible to approximate the identity of a sound (ast this sound is closest to the general American "a").

It will be possible

to determine how an infant's random sound is changed over a period of time until it becomes recognisable as the equivalent of an adult sound value. And it will be possible to know when crying becomes differentiated and to know when and how the social environment of the infant (inflections, accents, etc. that the infant hears) influences its utterances. The purpose of this study, then, is to show how adequate study can be given the pre-speech utterances of infants without dependence on any phonetic system and how a technical analysis of that data, gathered without distortion, can now be made.

CHAPTER II HANDBOOK OF OBSERVATIONAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL DATA RELATED TO THE RECORDINGS OF THE UTTERANCES OF SUSAN CAROL KAPTEYK

The recording of the pre-speech utterances of Susan Carol Kapteyn was undertaken to determine the value of the magnetic recorder and the Sound Spectrograph for the collection and analysis of infant sounds.

Following the pattern of the Yale psycho-clinic in its study of

developmental behavior, the method of approach to the study may be de­ scribed as the clinical and natural-history type.1 Uniform experimental or laboratory conditions have been avoided.

Where tests have been ad­

ministered, they have been supplemented by information obtained from analytic interviews with the parent. One objective throughout the study has been to relate the find­ ings in regard to speech development with other indications of mental and physical growth.

The interview and the developmental examinations,

principally os suggested by Mary M . Shirley In The First Two Years, were used to associate the various aspects of growth with the recordings of utterances. A word is in order on the use of only one subject for study. M. Lewis stated that

1.

2.

Arnold Gesell, Tjw Mental Growth of the Pre-School Child.

S^SSShj PP*

2 and 3*



- 10

The study of children relies upon sources of two kinds for its datat the continued observations of individual children, and the statistical re­ sults derived from the examination of a large number of children with regard to particular points . . . . To a large extent I have relied upon • • • the detailed observation of a par­ ticular child , . • careful observations of a child's life may be of the highest value provided due attention is given not only to the aotual sounds he makes and to those ’.ditch he responds, but also to the circumstances in which these events occur. Most of the writings on infant utterances during the first year of life are concerned with only one infant,

A few, notably of Shirley,

Buhler, and Irwin and Chen, have made studies involving a number of infants.

But in that the primary intent of this research has been to

apply a new technique to the gathering and analyzing of data on infant utterances, it became a necessity to postpone, temporarily, the "exami­ nation of a large number of children with regard to particular points . . . " and to devote meticulous, continued attention to one child. It may be understood that much more material was gathered than utilized in the recordings and in the following report and much more detail is utilized than would be necessary once this approach to the general problem is validated. Furthermore, throughout the fifty-six weeks of this study, con­ stant attention had to be given in the collection of data lest some significant phase of development be omitted.

Many times the recording

apparatus had to be left with the family involved for as much as two weeks before the mother found it possible to obtain recordings of some certain vocal play that was indulged in infrequently.

Many times it was

necessary to make repeated calls in order to obtain a satisfactory

-11 -

recording. A future stud/ of many infants wherein one phase of development is given extensive attention now may be undertaken with a more exaet knowledge of what is wanted*

The next section of this Handbook is meant to be used as an interpretative guide for the magnetic recordings* recording is givent

In connection with each

(1) pertinent biographical information} (2) data on

the circumstances of the recording) (3) a report on findings of others for that age level, and (4) a comparison of the present findings with those of other researchers* The purpose of the biographical data is to give as complete a picture as practicable in order that development towards speech may be seen as it 1st

part of the total growth of the infant— not as though

development towards speech were a segregated process* The findings of other researchers and the comparison are in­ cluded so that the contrast in methods and results may be seen*

A more

thorough discussion of previous works will be given under the heading, "Comparative Review of Researches*”

SPECTROGRAM 1 Birthcry Mote voiced stop at A and breaking and reforming of voiced sound at peak of scream intensity. An irregular quaver is clearly seen at B.

SPECTROGRAM 2 Birthcry The intensity and lack of control is shown by the blurred areas where there are no clear harmonies. Cross sections show resonance contours even in this area. Irregular quavering on a descending pitch is shown as the cry loses in intensity.

12 -

Recording 1 Time December 19* 1947 Age: birth 1:30 a.m. Duration of Recording:

four minutes (unedited)

Description of Recording The magnetic recorder was set up in the delivery room of the South Nassau Communities Hospital and turned on directly at the time of birth by an attendant* The talking that is heard is between the doctor and the attendant who is concerned lest the recorder not be oper­ ating. One can hear the doctor slapping the new-born in­ fant. The clearing of the air passages after repeated gasp­ ing is noticeable as blurred sounds become more clearly voiced. This is depicted in the Spectrographs marked Sp. 1 and Sp. 2. Note the gradual development of rhythmic crying. Note also that beside duration and intensity the ele­ ments of the crying include rhythm, cadence, intonation, voice breaks, attacks and resonances. A discussion of differentiation in crying should make reference to all these elements.

General Characteristics Height: 21 inches Weight: 8 pounds, 7| ounces Complexion: fair Hair: light brown, abundant All features regular, well-shaped head Ejyes: bright Fists tightly clenched, body totally in motion when crying Sucks fist within twenty hours Closes eyes at bright light at twenty hours Spends much of first twenty hours sleeping

*

The process of "editing is that of cutting out those sections of the recording that have no actual in­ fant sounds an then.

13

Findings of Other Researchers M. M. Lewi?Immediately after birth: C. S t e m (per Lewis*) Imnediately after birth: Hall (per Orvis Irwin and Han Paio Chen^ *) Immediately after birth: Shinn (per Irwin and Chen) Immediately after birth: Major (per Irwin and Chen) Immediately after birth: Blanton (per Irwin and Chen) Iraaediately after birth: Fenton (per Irwin and Chen) Immediately after birth: Gregoire (per Irwin and Chen) Immediately after birth: W. G. Bateman?

( A)

(A)

aha

a ng and a a and c varying from a to u a (A) (&) A series of short, rapid vigorous cries continued for about one minute. Judged by later samples, this cry was most like that which later warned her mother of some general discomfort.

Comparison of Findings As is summarized above, various birthcries have been analysed as containing, in all, eight vowel sounds and two consonant sounds. As one repeatedly audits this recording, the question is raised: How can one assign vowel or con­ sonant values to these sounds? The Spectrograms indicate that there is no close com­ parison in that there is no observable relationship between the resonances in the birthcry and those found in early "baby talk” or in adult sounds.

1. *

2. 3.

M. M. Lewis, loc. cit. In this and following citations of authorities on findings on the nature of infant utterances, reference will be repeatedly made to the tables prepared by M. M. Lewis and to the summary statements of Orvis Irwin and Han Paio Chen. These will be simply marked, "per Lewis" or "per Irwin and Chen." Orvis Irwin and Han Paio Chen, £j>. cit., p. 110. W. G, Bateman, A Child's Progress in Speeoh, Journal of Educational Psychology. V, 1914, p. 315.

- 14 -

The Spectrograms also show that there are certain characteristics of infant crying that may make objective measurements possible. The fundamental in these Spectro­ grams varies from 300 cycles per second to 540 c.p.s. This shows a pitch range of 240 c.p.s. There are some resonances that may provide additional data for compari­ sons.

-15 -

Recording 2 Time December 19, 1947 Age: nineteen hours 8:30 p.m. Duration of recording:

one minute (unedited)

Description Susan is lying quietly' sleeping in a bassinet in the hospital nursery. The nurse rolls her slightly. Immediately the baby awakes and begins crying. This quickly dies down when the rolling is stopped.

General Development Nurse reports that Susan is a •quiet* baby. There was a quick withdrawing action when a cold hand was touched to Susan's foot. She becomes excited when the nipple of a bottle touches her cheek. Sucking motions and a twisting of her head are in­ cluded in the reaction. Sneezes frequently. There is no reaction to test 1 of Shirley:^ turning toward or following light with eyes.

Findings of Others re First Crying Buhler Screaming at Btart was highly undi fferentiated. Bateman^ First fewdays were all the same as the first cry. Friedemann ,(per Irwin and Chen ) a, e, g, h, ch, and r Champneys (per Irwin and Chen) nga Shirley* a, u, ng

1. 2. 3. 4* 5.

M. M. Shirley, og, cit.. p. 490. Charlotte Buhler, op, cit.. p. 25. W. G. Bateman, op. cit.. p. 315. Orvis Irwin and Han Paio Chen, loc. cit. M. M. Shirley, op. c£t., p. 49.

- 16 -

Comparison of Findings This recording tends to support the findings of Buhler and Bateman (page 15) that there is little dif­ ference between the birthcry and later crying. However, one point is noted: there is a well-defined rhythm to the later crying that is not found in the birthcry.

17 -

Recordings 3 and U Taken at age two days and three days, these recordings proved repetitious. They are not included for that reason and for the reason that this survey study is not intended to present records of such close time proximity.

- 18 -

Time December 31, 1947 Aget eleven and one-half days 10*00 a.m. Duration of recording} one-half minute* Total recording timet three minutes*

P,SffP?frP&9S

Susan has Just been bathed. Was quiet during bath. As soon as bathed, she begins to cry and continues crying until she is given her bottle. Note that the elements of crying, duration, intensity, rhythm, cadence, Intonation, voice breaks, attacks and reso­ nances are all represented in this. Note that this crying differs in sane of these respects from preceding or succeed­ ing crying times.

£>EtnbLPfy4gHfflgt.

Susan has not cried except as feeding time approached. She seems able to follow forms with her eyes, although her eyea do not coordinate. Turns eyes to flashlight held just out of line of vision (first noticed cm fourth day.) (two days - eight days)** Smile reflex observed on seventh day. days)** Follows person on tenth day.

*

**

(three days - five

(six days - four weeks)**

"Duration of recording" indicates the length of the edited results. "Total recording time” indicates the length of the recording before editing. (See footnote p. 12.) The tests for physical development used in this research were developed by M. M. Shirley and are found in her work The First TSo Tears. V. 2, pp. 490-491. Hereafter reference to that table will be indicated by a placing in parentheses of the Interquartile Range for the test mentioned as found by Shirley.

- 19 -

Findings of Others re Sound Eli As quoted by Irwin and Che: Perez O ’Shea Stern and Stern Blanton

Hoyer and Hoyer Fenton

Chen

nts of Flrat Month a, i, e, o, u a £ or aha o as in owl e as in feel oo as in pool a as in an a as in father u, a, a, m a as in la a as in bar oo, o, h, 1, w crying: (t ) (a ) (*) < o whimpering:

Irwin and ChezA Gesell and Amatruda' Bateman"

1* 2, 3*

4*

5, 6.

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.specM kkam itf Part of babbling recording.

SPECTROGRAM 17 Part of babbling recording.

50

Recording 25 Time June 20, 1948 Aget twenty-seven weeks 9*00 a.m. Duration of recording: forty-five minutes Total recording timet sixty minutes

Description After a period of unusual quiet for several weeks, yesterday Susan began stringing long aeries of syllables together. For this lengthy recording, the recorder was left on for one hour* That only fifteen minutes of silence was found on the spool of wire afterward is evidence of the great change in vocalizations over the past two weeks. Note Spectrograms 15, 16, 17, 16, 19.

General Development The above-mentioned vocalizations accompany play. Susan reaches persistently to obtain an object and will turn to look for an object that has dropped from sight.

Findings of Others , Hoyer (per Lewis ) Six months, three days:

a (long drawn out repe­ titive chains)

Comparison of Findings Auditioning of the entire forty-five minute record will reveal a rich variety of vowel and semi-consonantal sounds. Just what these, sounds are is not established here ex­ cept that they are generally different from adult sounds that seem the equivalent. The- general placement of these vowel sounds in compari­ son to a vowel triangle of an adult is shown on the accompany­ ing graph. This is a suggestive method for comparison but does not take into consideration all elements involved.

1.

K. M. Lewis, ££• ^lt*| p. 237
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APPENDIX IV

NEW YORK UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EOUCAli. :i - 125 -



LIBRARY



Susan Carol Kapteyn Age 10 aonths