The quality of caregiver-child interaction is predicted by (caregivers’ perception of) their child’s interests

Abstract

This study examines the association between quality of caregiver-child interaction, and children’s interests in the topic of interaction and caregivers’ sensitivity to children’s interests. 81 caregiver-child dyads (24-30-month-olds, 42 girls, 39 boys, race/ethnicity information not ethically obtainable) were recruited for a shared book-reading task where parents read two books to their child – one of low and one of high interest to the child (with one novel word-object mapping in each book). We also obtained separate behavioural indices of children’s interests and later recognition of newly-introduced word-object mappings. Our findings highlight that quality of caregiver-child interaction is predicted by children’s interests and caregivers’ perception of children’s interests. Neither predicted later novel word recognition, though children showed successful novel word learning.

The quality of caregiver–child interaction is predicted by (caregivers’ perception of) their child’s interests

“…high or low interest) and/or by book category. All tables can be found in the electronic supplementary material, S6 [102].…”

“…All the data are required to replicate our analyses, outcomes and conclusions that have been published online in an open science repository [ 91 ].…”

“…We cannot share the raw eye coding and video data to avoid breach of anonymity and data protection. Other statistics supporting this article have been uploaded as part of the supplementary material (also to be found in the OSF page) [102].…”

Little scientists & social apprentices: Active word learning in dynamic social contexts using a transparent dyadic interaction platform

“…Children typically prioritize instructions and information from knowledgeable adults over uninformed individuals or peers (Kachel et al, 2021;Rakoczy et al, 2008), perceiving peer interactions as primarily social (Southgate et al, 2007;Zmyj et al, 2012). Mothers, being reliable informants, offer tailored information (Csibra & Gergely, 2009;Outters et al, 2020), aligning with children's interests (Ackermann et al, 2020(Ackermann et al, , 2023Madhavan & Mani, 2023). Maternal interactions foster neural synchrony, coordinating gestures and words, enhancing learning opportunities (Leong et al, 2017;Nguyen et al, 2022;Piazza et al, 2020).…”