Establishment Of Joint Attention Research Articles

Establishment of Joint Attention and Parental Cues in Interaction between Hearing Parents and Young Children Who are Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Objectives: This study aimed to identify the differences in the establishment of joint attention in hearing parent-deaf child dyads and hearing parent-hearing child dyads and to investigate the differences in maternal verbal and nonverbal cues during free-play episodes by using a systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods: Fourteen studies that meet the inclusive criteria were selected from eight electronic databases (PubMed, Eric, CINAHL Plus, ScienceDirect, Academic search complete, Google Scholar, RISS, Kyobo Scholar). The effect size was computed using a fixed effects model. Results: In a checklist of the study quality, the selected studies had a low risk of bias, and the subjects of a considerable number of studies were hearing mothers and young children before 36 months of age. Based on a meta-analysis, the two groups had no significant difference in the success rate of joint attention, parental verbal cues, and parental nonverbal cues. Conclusion: We observed a similar success rate of joint attention between hearing parent-deaf child dyads and hearing parent-hearing child dyads. In addition, hearing parents used similar patterns in using verbal and nonverbal cues regardless of their young children’s hearing status. Our results point to important avenues for future research on how hearing parents can better accommodate their children’s hearing status by using verbal and nonverbal cues.

What Happens Before Book Reading Starts? an Analysis of Teacher-Child Behaviours With Print and Digital Books.

A body of research documents teacher–child reading behaviors in educational settings. Few will disagree that the potential for word and narrative comprehension increases when children’s prior knowledge is activated and when children’s focus is fully on the reading session. Despite this, little is known about the potential for establishment of joint attention and activation of prior knowledge in an early childhood education and care setting and how early childhood educators prepare young children to participate in shared book reading sessions before formal reading starts. Based on video data of teachers (N = 12) and small groups of children (N = 72) reading picture books and picture book apps in kindergarten, we sought to shed light on what behaviors occur before reading starts. The analyses were conducted in two phases. The first phase was based on 48 videotaped readings and followed a descriptive quantitative approach to investigate early childhood teachers’ time use before the reading session, with readings of both print books and picture book apps. The second phase was based on two app readings in which the pre-reading phases stood out for their long duration. A qualitative analytical approach was applied to describe the teacher–child behavior, establishment of joint attention, and activation of prior knowledge during the two specific pre-reading events. Even though the sample is small, we find clear examples of pre-reading strategies specific to app readings. In this study, we discuss teachers’ strategies to promote joint attention and activation of prior knowledge in new ways and how teachers exploit the pre-reading phase, for instance taking advantage of the books paratext, while adapting to the medium. Nevertheless, there remains a knowledge gap concerning app readings with short or no pre-reading phases.

Joint attention facilitates observed gaze direction discrimination

Efficiently judging where someone else is looking is important for social interactions, allowing us a window into their mental state by establishing joint attention. Previous work has shown that judging the gaze direction of a non-foveally presented face is facilitated when the eyes of that face are directed towards the centre of the scene. This finding has been interpreted as an example of the human bias for misattributing observed ambiguous gaze signals as self-directed eye-contact. To test this interpretation against an alternative hypothesis that the facilitation is instead driven by the establishment of joint attention, we conducted two experiments in which we varied the participants' fixation location. In both experiments, we replicated the previous finding of facilitated gaze discrimination when the participants fixated centrally. However, this facilitation was abolished when participants fixated peripheral fixation crosses (Experiment 1) and reversed when participants fixated peripheral images of real-world objects (Experiment 2). Based on these data, we propose that the facilitation effect is consistent with the interpretation that gaze discrimination is facilitated when joint attention is established. This finding therefore extends previous work showing that engaging in joint attention facilitates a range of social cognitive processes.

Gesture in speaking tasks beyond the classroom: An exploration of the multimodal negotiation of meaning via Skype videoconferencing on mobile devices

This qualitative study attempts to explicate the role of gestures formed with learners’ hands and technology during second language speaking tasks via Skype videoconferencing tools, accessed on mobile devices. The theory of negotiation of meaning according to the Varonis and Gass model of non-understandings (1985) underpins the study. Data was collected from ten intermediate English language learners via recordings of their task-based interactions and stimulated recall interviews. The study found that gestures support forms of negotiation through affording participants a range of visual and embodied clues which operate in close conjunction with their language use. Findings suggest that gestures play a role in the establishment of joint attention and negotiation of vocabulary; and they are exploited to appeal for assistance and scaffold interlocutors. In some instances, gestures also potentially confuse learners. The deployment of mobile technologies was found to transform and mediate gestures in complex ways. Learners also experience challenges in their co-ordination of multimodal talk from beyond the classroom.

Para além dos déficits: interação e atenção conjunta em crianças com autismo

As desordens do espectro autista são descritas por déficits persistentes na interação e comunicação social, além de padrão restrito, repetitivo e estereotipado de comportamentos, interesses e atividades. Apesar dessa descrição dominante – a partir dos déficits –, na literatura também há autores que lançam olhares aos comportamentos para além dos déficits. Nessa perspectiva, o objetivo deste trabalho foi investigar como se dão os processos de interação social em crianças com autismo em contexto familiar, mais especificamente analisando os processos de atenção conjunta. Estudos de casos múltiplos foram conduzidos com duas crianças de cinco anos diagnosticadas com o transtorno. Por dois meses, foram feitas videogravações semanais das crianças no contexto familiar. Com base no referencial da Rede de Significações, as cenas foram mapeadas e transcritas, e as interações analisadas por meio da noção de fluxo interacional. Apesar da presença de comportamentos e interesses repetitivos e estereotipados nos dois casos, verificou-se a ocorrência de recursos comunicativos na interação, a qual se deu, muitas vezes, em situações de contraposição ou evitação social. Além desses comportamentos, verificou-se o estabelecimento de atenção conjunta e processos de negociação de interesses por parte das crianças. A evidência de tais comportamentos coloca como necessária maior exploração do tema, já que apontam para algumas potencialidades, mesmo que através de modos particulares nessas crianças.

Vygotsky, Cognitive Development and Language

SummaryLev Vygotsky’s (1896–1934) views of the genesis of language and its relation to thought, illustrated here by his account of the origin of the pointing gesture, can be seen as anticipating current research in socially constituted cognition, pragmatics, developmental psychology and grammaticalization, in all of which the importance of contextual and pragmatic factors looms large. His conceptualization of the evolution of communication from action to semiosis has bearing on, and is illuminated by, recent developments in neurobiology, developmental psychology, primatology, and grammaticalization theory. Specifically, recently discovered mirror neuron systems may offer a neurophysiological platform for the evolution of language from gesture and imitation, for the transition from action to sign, from referential to relational meaning, an evolution in which the establishment of joint attention is pivotal. With his emphasis on the dynamic, socially constructed nature of signs, Vygotsky shares Humboldt’s view of language asenergeia, as a system in a perpetual state of emergence, a view consistent with Condillac’s ‘language of action’, in which spontaneous vocalizations and gestures give rise to sign functions. Research of the grammaticalization pathways associated with demonstratives and modal particles also offers new perspectives on the process and hypothesized unidirectionality of grammaticalization, including the plausible claim that demonstratives represent a second and separate source of candidates for grammaticalization. Integrating grammaticalization research with findings from relevant social and natural sciences holds out the prospect of underwriting significant advances in understanding the origin of language and the emergence of grammar.

Picture-book reading by mothers and young children and its impact upon language development

The impact of parental picture-book reading with young children upon language development and the resulting language skills are discussed. Three major aspects are differentiated: the support derived from the pictures themselves; the establishment of joint attention between mother and child, and the features of the text. A symbolization gradient is described, leading from toys over pictures to words as arbitrary representations of the referents. The prototypical and simplified nature of the pictures is emphasized and the rhythmic, rhyming, and repititive features of the text, supporting pattern abstraction and memory storage, are discussed. After the logical analysis of the principles involved, processes of actual mother-child conversation about picture books that have been described in the literature are summarized.