Toddlers' Emerging Ways of Achieving Social Coordinations with a Peer

Abstract

14 peer dyads were observed longitudinally at 16, 20, 24, 28, and 32 months to assess developmental changes in social coordinations (both action-to-action thematic relations and extended games). Each child's movements through the playroom, actions upon play material, vocalizations, verbalizations, and gestures were coded for their relation to the concurrent or immediately prior behavior of the peer: Unrelated, Tangential, Coordinated, Interfering. There was a marked increase with age in acts coordinated with those of a peer, and imitations of the peer's nonverbal actions accounted for most of the developmental change. The use of words to direct the peer in a coordinated way increased with age but remained infrequent. Developmental change in the frequency of games paralleled that for imitative acts, and imitative acts both established and set the theme for most of the games. Thus, imitating another's nonverbal actions is a core behavioral strategy for achieving social coordinations during the developmental period preceding reliance on verbal communication in peer interaction.

Constructing an understanding of mind: The development of children's social understanding within social interaction

“…Children are capable of establishing and maintaining positive peer interactions in play and in cooperative problem-solving by the end of their second year Eckerman et al 1989;Howes et al 1989). Without a way to "make sense" of other children's behavior, the toddler cannot anticipate a peer's behavior, hence cannot behave in a coordinated, reciprocal, accommodating manner, and peers' behavior will simply be inscrutable for the very young child.…”

“…Without a way to "make sense" of other children's behavior, the toddler cannot anticipate a peer's behavior, hence cannot behave in a coordinated, reciprocal, accommodating manner, and peers' behavior will simply be inscrutable for the very young child. The fact that children can imitate one another by 14 to 18 months (Eckerman et al 1989;Hanna & Meltzoff 1993) but cannot cooperate with one another until 24 months or later (Brownell & Carriger 1990;Tomasello et al 1993) suggests that their early understanding of others' minds, as constructed in adult-child relationships, remains too incomplete to serve interaction more generally. Moreover, the social understanding that develops in the context of early peer play is not a function of mental state talk between peers.…”

“…Nonverbal interaction may be even more important for children's developing social understanding of one another. Mutual imitation, for example, may provide the first means for children to begin making sense of their peers' behavior and may be the grist for generating initial understanding of peers' intentions (Eckerman et al 1989).…”

Encontros com o outro: empatia e intersubjetividade no primeiro ano de vida

“…Poderíamos supor ainda que esse seria um modo de retomar a construção de uma relação individualizada, do tipo "sei quem você é e lembro do que fi zemos juntos". Carvalho e Pedrosa (no prelo) apresentam uma revisão a respeito de imitação a partir de três vertentes da literatura, que aqui tocamos apenas de passagem: autores interacionistas clássicos, como Wallon e Piaget; a literatura recente sobre imitação em primatas; e a teorização sobre o papel da imitação no desenvolvimento de ações coordenadas na interação criança-criança (Eckerman, Davis, & Didow, 1989;Eckerman & Didow, 1996;Eckerman & Peterman, 2001). As autoras sugerem que os atos imitativos podem ser compreendidos como uma proto-linguagem em dois sentidos diferentes mas compatíveis: como recursos comunicativos que emergem antes da linguagem verbal e/ou como precursores ou requisitos do processo de desenvolvimento que conduz à representação e à linguagem.…”

Self-awareness and other-awareness. II: Mirror self-recognition, social contingency awareness, and synchronic imitation.

“…Communicating by sustained synchronic imitation of each other's activity emerges during the second year of life and quickly becomes the most important preverbal form of communication among peers (Baudonniere, 1988a(Baudonniere, , 1988bEckerman, Davis, & Didow, 1989;Nadel & Fontaine, 1989;Nadel-Brulfert & Baudonniere, 1982). In synchronic imitation, two children simultaneously play with the same type of object in a similar, though not always identical, way.…”