Over the past 50 years, scientists have made amazing discoveries about the origins of human language acquisition. Central to this field of study is the process by which infants' perceptual sensitivities gradually align with native language structure, known as "perceptual narrowing." Perceptual narrowing offers a theoretical account of…

Twenty-five newborn infants were tested for auditory-oral matching behavior when presented with the consonant sound /m/ and the vowel sound /a/--a precursor behavior to vocal imitation. Auditory-oral matching behavior by the infant was operationally defined as showing the mouth movement appropriate for producing the model sound just heard (mouth…

This study treats the child's vocal and rhythmic development immediately subsequent to birth and forward, and shows how this development relates to musical learning. (Author)

This annual report presents several articles related to the work of the Clinical Center for Child Development at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan. The articles are: (1) "Joint Attention as a System Property of the Infant-Caregiver Interaction System"(Tsuneda Miho and Shing-Jen Chen); (2) "Age-Related Change in Japanese Maternal…

This annual report presents several articles related to the work of the Clinical Center for Child Development at Hokkaido University in Sapporo, Japan. The articles are: (1) "Maternal Speech and Behavior during Mother-Infant Play: Comparison between the United States and Japan" (Sueko Toda, Marc H. Bornstein, and Hiroshi Azuma); (2)…