The opposite of an experiment in language development research

Abstract: The best future for language development research will be one that embraces both descriptive research and great experiments. We can all look forward to the new hypotheses that emerge from this union, which will position us to create novel models of learning, growth, and change. In my talk, I will focus on entirely natural studies of communication between infants and caregivers, which together show why it’s important to sample at short timescales (milliseconds to minutes) as well as longer ones (hours to years). In doing so, I will question the divisions we’ve historically built up between research on language, emotion, social networks, and the social brain. Complete accounts of communication and learning will need to examine how diverse phenomena like these relate to each other and in fact permeate each other. Collectively, I hope we can get closer to seeing the development of communication as it really is: a *continuous*, dynamic, noisy, embodied, and highly variable process, scaffolded by children’s very local social world.