The Power of Simple Communication

This is Leslie, the author of our second entry on chapter 3, and she said the photo was taken when she was about 1 1/2 to 2 years old. She also said, "My mom said I loved this dress." This picture definitely captures that! Happy reading.


In chapter three, we learn that communication is crucial in infancy. The only way that children understand and comprehend their environment is through verbal and physical gestures. Galinsky said that "infants as young as one or two days old already 'recognize' their mother's voices" (p. 105). This means that infants are already familiar with their mother's voice, and when they are born, they know that that voice is their mother's. Infants learned their mother's voice prior to being born because they were constantly surrounded by their mother's conversations.

Galinsky also discussed the importance of language development in the early stages of life. She talks about how speaking bilingually will have a large impact on the child's language comprehension. I agree with this because when I was growing up, my parents spoke a lot of Hmong to me, but they also spoke a lot of English, and the one that stuck was English. I learned to speak Hmong, but I did not grow as fluent in the language as I would have wanted. Plus, growing up I was always used to speaking English at school, and then when I was home, I would speak "Hmonglish," which was a mixture of both Hmong and English. It never occurred to me whether I was speaking one or the other, but learning two languages as a child was not as difficult as learning a different language as an adult, and this helped me keep the language in my system.

Communication also incorporates the use of facial expressions as a way to illustrate what someone feels, thinks, or wants. There are three typical faces that are expressed: “Oochie= an expression adults use to express concern, caring, comfort, and love. It involves pursed lips and is playful. Wow= it is an adult expression of surprise; the eyebrows are raised, the mouth is wide open, and there is an upturning in the lips that indicates amazement, pride, and love. Joy= reflects an unmistakable look of joy and love” (p. 111). I always get caught making these expressions to my baby brother, Ethan, when I’m talking to him. I remember when he was about 15 months; he was learning to imitate the same faces I made towards him. I took him to the store with me and I would look at him and open my mouth wide and look down at him with big brown “googly” eyes. He thought it was hysterical and tried to do the same “wow” expression. I notice that every time I interact with him now, he always has a funny expression on his face due to his learning way too many from his older siblings.

I also agree with Galinsky’s perspective on how parents communicate with their babies through “baba-wawa talk.” I use this language all the time when I am babysitting my little cousins and my baby brother. The children will indicate that they want water through either saying the basic “wa wa” part or by pointing to the water. They are learning to verbalize the first part of the word and learning to use the “wa wa” to let me know that they want the water. My family and I use this method with my baby brother. Whenever he wants to eat or drink, we say “mah mah” which means rice in Hmong. He nods his head up and down. He knows the word simply because we always say it to him and he comprehends that when he asks for it, it will be given to him.

This chapter focuses a lot on many different ways communication can be stressed to young children and parents. Communication embodies the elements of child development because we want to see the growth of a child’s language and verbal speech through conversations and their environments. Developing communication skills is an on-going learning process that never stops because children are constantly exposed to learning new things and learning to store what they learn in their memory.

The reading on communication has further made me more aware of how well children comprehend the information and how they process that into their memory. I was really surprised at how children learn so much through observing the facial cues of their parents, and how powerful those are. I feel that now when I communicate with my baby brother, I see that he is catching on to what I am trying to get across to him, and I’m amazed at how well he comprehends what I am telling him. When he nods and tries to tell me something, I see that he knows how to get me to understand the same thing he is trying to explain to me. We somehow learn what the other needs and wants through facial expressions and simple “one” words.