From Interactions to Conversations: The Development of Joint Engagement During Early Childhood

Abstract

This research traces the development of symbol-infused joint engagement during mother-child interactions into the preschool years. Forty-nine children, who had been previously observed as toddlers (Adamson, Bakeman, & Deckner, 2004), were systematically observed during interactions with their mothers at ages 3½, 4½, and 5½ during activities related to the past and future, internal states, and graphic systems. Although the amount of symbol-infused joint engagement reached a ceiling by 3½, its focus continued to became more complex and its form more balanced. Individual differences in children's symbol-infused joint engagement were stable across four years. These findings highlight both how joint engagement is transformed as conversational skills develop and how it remains rooted in earlier interactions and supported by caregiver's actions.A broad range of studies of early development has focused on how young children share attention to objects and events with a social partner. This body of literature stands on the strong theoretical foundation of Vygotsky's (1978) and Werner and Kaplan's (1963) seminal social cultural developmental theories and their several contemporary variations (e.g., Nelson, 2008;Rogoff, 1990;Tomasello, 2003). Recently, much of this work has coalesced around the concept of joint attention (see, e.g., Eilan, Hoerl. McCormack, & Roessler, 2005; Moore & Dunhanm, 1995;Seemann, 2011) to produce ample documentation of the emergence of specific joint attention behaviors and skills and their use within episodes of joint engagement. This literature also documents the role of joint activities in fostering cognitive, social cognitive, and linguistic accomplishments both concurrently and considerably later in both typically and atypically developing young children.To date, descriptions of joint attention have been largely confined to the first three years when behaviors such as pointing, skills such as initiating joint attention and responding to joint attention bids, and behavioral states such as coordinated and supported joint engagement have been defined and systematically documented (for brief reviews, see Adamson & Dimitrova, in press;Mundy & Newell, 2007). We designed the present study to explore how joint engagement during parent-child interactions continues to develop into the preschool years, after children begin to routinely infuse symbols into episodes of joint Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to: Lauren B. Adamson Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA 30303, USA. ladamson@gsu.edu. The authors were all affiliated with the Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA. Deborah F. Deckner is now at Clayton State University, Morrow, GA. NIH Public Access NIH-PA Author ManuscriptNIH-PA Author Manuscript NIH-PA Author Manuscript engagement. Our intent was to gain a longer view of developmental changes in the form and focus of joint engagement, one that includes not only the crucial entrance into language but also the e...

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