Instructional Interactions With Toddlers: An Exploration of Joint Attention in Day Care Centers in Colombia

• In Event: 42.066 - Vygotsky in Colombia

Abstract

Joint attention is a form of triadic interaction that emerges before 12 months of age and occurs when a child synchronizes his actions with another person to interact in a coordinated way over an object or event. Based on Vygotskys ideas, it has been argued that joint attention is fundamental for children’s development (Tomasello, 1995; Gauvain, 2006; Reddy, 2008). Specifically, children learn through this joint process about objects, events, other persons and themselves.

According to sociocultural theory, joint attention occurs when children engage with mothers and other caregivers in daily activities within their cultural context. Although Chavajay and Rogoff (1999) showed that there are cultural differences in mother-toddler engagement in attentional processes, the vast majority of existing evidence comes from studies conducted in the family context or experimental settings in high-income countries. Therefore, our understanding of how joint attention occurs outside the families can be strengthened by evidence collected in other contexts. In Colombia, many children from low-income families spend most of the day in daycare settings during their first 2 years, and recent research has shown that daycare settings for these children are characterized by very low levels of quality. For instance, groups tend to be very large and toddlers have few opportunities for one-to-one interactions with their caregivers.

Grounded in sociocultural theory, the present study explores how triadic interactions occur between toddlers and their teachers in daycare centers located in low-income neighborhoods in Bogotá, Colombia. Specifically, we describe the type (triadic or dyadic), the quantity, and the reference object or event of teacher-toddler interactions in these daycare centers. We also consider whether these interactions are linked to toddler’s involvement in instances of joint attention. Participants included 94 low-income toddlers and their teachers in 7 private daycare centers. Extensive classroom observations (4 hours) were conducted, videotaped and coded by trained observers. Coding occurred in two passes: first we identified the type of interactions between teachers and toddlers (triadic/dyadic), and then we coded what object/person/event was the focus of each interaction.

Preliminary analyses show that daycare teachers engage in individual interactions with toddlers over the day, but only 53% of these interactions are triadic. This frequency is low when compared to previous findings in the family context. Most importantly, the frequency of situations involving joint attention differs across children in the group, with some children engaging in no instance of joint attention throughout the day. This finding is concerning. Finally, as reported in previous findings with mothers, results show that teachers promote developmental notions such as exploration of objects, social reference, and self-knowledge. However, teachers also promote content learning with similar frequencies.

Implications of these results for our understanding of the development of joint attention in daycare centers in different cultural contexts will be discussed. We will also discuss how the absence of joint attention for some children can create or exacerbate inequality within this context.

Authors

• Paola Guerrero, Universidad de los Andes

• Carolina Maldonado, Universidad de los Andes