Maternal Attention‐Directing Strategies and Infant Focused Attention During Problem Solving

Abstract

Forty‐nine mother‐infant dyads participated in the study. Mothers were observed during free play with their infants to assess their attention‐directing strategies. Infants were observed during the Bayley to assess their focused attention abilities. Assessments were made when infants were 10 and 18 months. Whereas consistently high levels of maintaining over time were modestly associated with better infant focused attention at 18 months, consistently high levels of redirecting were moderately associated with poorer infant focused attention at 18 months. Additionally, more focused attention was associated with higher Bayley scores at both ages. Although the direction of effects could not be determined, the findings suggest links between maternal attention‐directing strategies (maintaining and redirecting) during play and infant attentional abilities during problem solving.

Longitudinal Antecedents of Executive Function in Preschoolers

“…The present findings are consistent with those documenting positive relations between maternal attention maintaining and children’s cognition such as focused attention (Bono & Stifter, 2003), object exploration (Landry et al, 1996), language skills (Barnes, Gutfreund, Satterly, & Wells, 1983), and independent problem-solving (Landry et al, 2000). In a study conducted by Gauvain & Fagot (1995), the joint contribution of maternal perceptions of toddler temperament and maternal behavior were examined during a problem-solving task.…”

“…Rather than encouraging or strengthening children’s attention focus, maternal attention redirection requires children to disengage, shift, and refocus his or her attention on something that is not of current interest to the child, but is of interest to the parent (Bono & Stifter, 2003). This requires greater allocation of attentional resources and consequently may overload the child’s developing executive abilities by producing attentional conflict and interference in the inhibited child’s already aroused system.…”

“…In sum, supporting and elaborating upon children’s attentional focus appears to be a critical predictor of concurrent delay inhibition and may do so by enhancing children’s ability to focus attentional resources and concentrate on task demands (Bono & Stifter, 2003). Over time, maternal attention-maintaining may also strengthen children’s developing ability to delay and maintain more than one representation and perform an alternative response, as required for conflict inhibition, particularly during sensitive periods of development.…”

“…When children are distressed, attention redirection is adaptive and speeds emotional recovery (Rothbart, Ziaie, & O’Boyle, 1992; Stifter & Braungart, 1995). However, in contexts when children are not distressed, maternal attention-redirection may be particularly challenging for children and may even be experienced as intrusive as it encourages the child to disengage, shift, and refocus attention on something of interest to the parent (Bono & Stifter, 2003). For example, mothers’ redirection of Down syndrome infants’ attention has been associated with infants’ failure to respond and reduced manipulation of toys (Landry & Chapieski, 1989).…”

Executive function in the first three years of life: Precursors, predictors and patterns

“…In particular, the early caregiving environment has been demonstrated to show significant impact on developing attentional control (Gaertner et al 2008;Graziano, Calkins and Keane 2011;Kochanska et al,2000). For example, Bono and Stifter (2003) found that children of mothers who consistently used attention-maintenance strategies during free-play sessions showed higher focused attention at 18 months, and higher scores on a test of cognitive function, whilst children of mothers who frequently used redirecting strategies showed poorer focused attention and lower cognitive scores at the same age.…”