How does an understanding of cause and effect relate to early communication? Our original hunch was that only babies who understood cause and effect would be able to use their vocalizations with the intention of contacting their moms. Babies who weren’t yet using vocalizations along with eye gaze probably did not “get” the causal connection between communication and making things happen. We were stunned at how clearly the results came out. Every child who used vocalizations with intention (that is, with eye contact to the parent) was also capable of the highest level of causal reasoning in the
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How would this be done differently with blind babies? Blind people certainly learn cause an effect without eye contact, and blind parents don't make eye contact. I am seeing weaknesses in this paradigm that are potentially related to eugenics ideas of deaf parents and blind parents and speech disabled parents as unfit.
