The ins and outs of joint attention: A dynamic systems analysis of sequences of joint attention sequences in an infant early childhood setting.

• In Event: Beyond the Parent-Infant Dyad: How Infants Shape Educators’ Behaviors

Abstract

Episodes of adult-infant joint attention are widely regarded as important interactive contexts for language, social and cognitive development. Established through the mutual coordination of attention, these shared experiences around an object or activity allow infants to extend their thinking and refine their understanding within the context of a collaborative social interaction (Tomasello, 2003). To date, most research has focussed on parent-infant joint attention in contexts where distractions are minimised. Such episodes are likely to differ from those occurring in early childhood centres, where the presences of multiple infants and educators and competing demands on attention may challenge the establishment and maintenance of these shared experience.
This study used a dynamic systems approach to study naturally-occurring joint attention in an infant early childhood classroom. A dynamic systems approach recognises that human interactive behaviours occur within a dynamic network of relationships between people, objects and contexts, that mutually shape one another through processes of responsiveness, creativity and fulfilment (Fogel, 2011). Relating this to educator-infant joint attention, this study examined the mutual and ‘in the moment’ contribution of both partners to the establishment, maintenance and ultimate conclusion of joint attention episodes.
Participants were eight infants, aged 14-18 months, who attended an infant program in a high quality early childhood education centre in Sydney Australia. One hour of video footage captured the regular play experiences of each individual infant. From this footage, naturally occurring joint attention sequences (n=72) were identified from the time of the initial noticing of the other, through the shared experience, to the time when a partner chose to leave. Using real time video analysis software, the attentional states of both infant and educator were coded across the duration of each sequence. Two-dimensional state space grids (Hollenstein, 2013) were used to synchronise infant and educator attention states, thus generating graphic representations of the shifting attention states of each partner as they traversed across the entire joint attention sequence. Descriptive statistics illustrated the frequency and average duration of specific synchronised states and the visual grid representations were used to detect various sequential patterns of synchronised attention states.
The duration of joint attention sequences varied widely (M=4:33 minutes, range = 0.15 – 41:00) with initiations generated by both infants and educators. Four qualitatively different pathways into joint attention were detected, and once joint attention was established, distractions were common (M=3.48, range = 1 – 28). Despite these distractions, infants and educators appeared motivated and resilient enough to re-establish joint attention until the ‘pull’ of distraction drew one partner away. Our results demonstrate the negotiated and dynamic processes, in which both infant and educator are agentic participants, that bring about shared intentions, perceptions and actions. Implications for infant educators will be discussed, with reference to the skills required to create contexts of mutual responsiveness, and the kinds of stimulating, inviting environments that create opportunities for joint attention and collaborative learning.

Authors

• Sheila Degotardi, Macquarie University
  Presenting Author

• Sarah Jacobson, Macquarie University