Logo

An infant uses a traffic cone like a megaphone to project his voice. He and the teacher play a call and answer game. The boy makes staccato sounds at the same pitch but in a steady rhythm. The teacher replies with slightly more complex sounds by varying her pitch. Did you hear the boy make any attempt to vary his pitch? What sounds would you make to draw the child into a sound making dialogue with a more definite call and answer? Around minute 1:00 he leaves his cone and approaches the cone the teacher is using. After hearing the sounds from the large opening of the teacher’s cone, he returns to the small end of his cone and makes his “ahh ahh ahh” sounds again. One wonders why he went to the mouth of the teacher’s cone. Was he trying to “understand” the other sound by getting closer to it? At 01:25 he leaves his cone again and this time indicates that he wants to make noises through the teacher’s cone. Could he be thinking that her cone is better? After all, her cone makes more complex sounds. But when he tries, the sounds are the same as he made before. The teacher continues the game with a third cone. Notice (01:55) that he waits for the teacher to finish her call before he answers. What does this say about infants’ understanding of conversation? He exits when he hears the bang of a drum behind him; perhaps he leaves to try something new. See also the Videatives titled, “Infant Toots Her Horn” for a close look at how an infant experiments with her amplified and non-amplified voice.

Keywords: Infants, Voice, Music, Sound, Teacher-Child

Runtime: 2 minutes 5 seconds