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ERIC Number: EJ1435135
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Aug
Pages: 15
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0012-1649
EISSN: EISSN-1939-0599
Consistency and Variability in Multimodal Parent-Child Social Interaction: An At-Home Study Using Head-Mounted Eye Trackers
Sara E. Schroer; Ryan E. Peters; Chen Yu
Developmental Psychology, v60 n8 p1432-1446 2024
Real-time attention coordination in parent-toddler dyads is often studied in tightly controlled laboratory settings. These studies have demonstrated the importance of joint attention in scaffolding the development of attention and the types of dyadic behaviors that support early language learning. Little is known about how often these behaviors occur in toddlers' everyday lives. We brought wireless head-mounted eye trackers to families' homes to study the moment-to-moment patterns of toddlers' and parents' visual attention and manual activity in daily routines. Our sample consisted of English- and Spanish-speaking families who all reported being middle- or upper middle-class. Toddlers were 2 to 3 years old. Consistent with the findings from previous laboratory studies, we found variability in how frequently toddlers attended to named objects in two everyday activities--Object Play and Mealtime. We then tested whether parent-toddler joint attention in the seconds before a naming utterance increased toddler's attention on the named object. We found that joint attention accompanied by the attended object being held increased the child's attention to the labeled object during naming. We posit that in the rich, noisy world of toddlers' everyday lives, embodied attention plays a critical role in coordinating dyadic behaviors and creating informative naming moments. Our findings highlight the importance of studying toddlers' natural behavior in the real world.
American Psychological Association. Journals Department, 750 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20002. Tel: 800-374-2721; Tel: 202-336-5510; Fax: 202-336-5502; e-mail: order@apa.org; Web site: http://www.apa.org
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: National Institutes of Health (NIH) (DHHS); National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Graduate Education (DGE)
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Texas (Austin)
Grant or Contract Numbers: R01HD074601; R01HD093792; 1610403