Organismic interpretation of infant vocalizations.

The present paper is an attempt to integrate certain facts of linguistic development in infants with the laws of developmental direction and with the organismic hypothesis which have been proposed chiefly in the areas of anatomical and gross motor development, as well as to relate them to recent theories in comparative linguistics. Jakobson (18), the linguist, claims that in all languages the time sequence in the acquisition of sound elements is the same. If this is true, must there not be then, some basic developmental changes common to children of all nationalities, to account for such findings? Students of child development are familiar with the intimate interrelationships existing between structure and function, but in the complexities of the earliest stages in the acquisition of speech, certain important and striking concomitants are likely to be overlooked. Language, which is the most unique and highest form of behavior, is characteristic of man alone, it involves some of the most intricate parts of his neuro-muscular system, as well as the finest degrees of motor coordination of which he is capable. The organs involved in speech do not serve speech alone, but are first used for two much more vital functions essential to the survival of the organism: namely, breathing and eating. If the organism is to survive, the first thing for which these organs must be used is an abrupt and complex physiological adjustment from the fetal to the post-natal type of circulation which involves the onset of respiriation. For the first few weeks the infant's breathing is rapid, irregular, and abdominal in type (2z). It generally becomes deeper, more regular, and rhythmical; the thorax is used more and eventually the process becomes quite automatic. In Irwin's (15, I6) detailed phonemic investigations of the sounds uttered by young infants, 50 per cent of all sounds uttered by the newborn and 97 per cent of all consonants heard at this early age were the aspirate h sound which is undoubtedly associated with the child's gasping for breath in the state of oxygen hunger described by Ribble (24). Interestingly enough, the letter h is derived from the Greek word which means "rough breathing." In the newborn period there are few non-crying sounds heard (13, 14), and, as Ribble (24) states, most of the early crying is, in effect, "emergency respiration." Some writers have brought out, too, that the early non-crying