Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gxg78 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T18:08:01.040Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Getting and maintaining attention in talk to young children*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2007

BRUNO ESTIGARRIBIA  and
EVE V. CLARK
BRUNO ESTIGARRIBIA*
Affiliation:
Stanford University
EVE V. CLARK
Affiliation:
Stanford University
*
Address for correspondence: E. V. Clark, Department of Linguistics, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2150, USA. Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

When two people talk about an object, they depend on joint attention, a prerequisite for setting up common ground in a conversational exchange. In this study, we analyze this process for parent and child, with data from 40 dyads, to show how adults initiate joint attention in talking to young children (mean ages 1 ; 6 and 3 ; 0). Adults first get their children's attention with a summons (e.g. Ready?, See this?), but cease using such forms once children give evidence of attending. Children signal their attention by looking at the target object, evidence used by the adults. Only at that point do adults begin to talk about the object. From then on, they use language and gesture to offer information about and maintain attention on the target. The techniques adults rely on are interactive: they establish joint attention and maintain it throughout the exchange.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 34 , Issue 4 , November 2007 , pp. 799 - 814
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Agresti, A. (2002). Categorical data analysis, 3rd ed.New York: Wiley.Google Scholar
Akhtar, N., Dunham, F. & Dunham, P. J. (1991). Directive interactions and early vocabulary development: The role of joint attentional focus. Journal of Child Language 18, 41–49.Google Scholar
Baldwin, D. A. (1993). Early referential understanding: Infants' ability to recognize referential acts for what they are. Developmental Psychology 29, 832–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bates, E. (1976). Language and context: The acquisition of pragmatics. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Brand, R. J., Baldwin, D. A. & Ashburn, L. A. (2002). Evidence for ‘motionese’: Modifications in mothers' infant-directed action. Developmental Science 5, 72–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brinck, I. (2001). Attention and the evolution of intentional communication. Pragmatics & Cognition 9, 259–77.Google Scholar
Butler, S. C., Caron, A. J. & Brooks, R. (2000). Infant understanding of the referential nature of looking. Journal of Cognition & Development 1, 359–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butterworth, G. E. & Grover, L. (1990). Joint visual attention, manual pointing, and preverbal communication in infancy. In Jeannerod, M. (ed.), Attention and performance XII: Motor representation and control, 605–24. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Butterworth, G. E. & Jarrett, N. L. M. (1991). What minds have in common is space: Spatial mechanisms for perspective taking in infancy. British Journal of Developmental Psychology 9, 55–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carpenter, M., Nagell, K. & Tomasello, M. (1998). Social cognition, joint attention, and communicative competence from 9 to 15 months of age. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 63 (4, Serial No. 255).Google Scholar
Chavajay, P. & Rogoff, B. (1999). Cultural variation in management of attention by children and their caregivers. Developmental Psychology 35, 1079–90.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, E. V. (2001). Grounding and attention in language acquisition. In Andronis, M., Ball, C., Elston, H. & Neuvel, S. (eds) Papers from the 37th meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society, vol. 1, 95–116. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.Google Scholar
Clark, E. V. & Estigarribia, B. (in preparation). Grounding words and information in conversation with young children.Google Scholar
Clark, E. V. & Wong, A. D.-W. (2002). Pragmatic directions about language use: Words and word meanings. Language in Society 31, 181–212.Google Scholar
Clark, H. H. (1996). Using language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
D'Entremont, B., Hains, S. M. J. & Muir, D. W. (1997). A demonstration of gaze following in 3 to 6 month olds. Infant Behavior & Development 20, 569–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fenson, L., Dale, P. S., Reznick, J. S., Bates, E., Thal, D. J. & Pethick, S. J. (1994). Variability in early communicative development. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development 59 (5, Serial No. 242).CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Gogate, L. J., Bahrick, L. E. & Watson, J. D. (2000). A study of multimodal motherese: The role of temporal synchrony between verbal labels and gestures. Child Development 71, 878–94.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Goodwin, C. (1981). Conversational organization: Interaction between speakers and hearers. New York: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Hall, W. S., Nagy, W. E. & Linn, R. (1984). Spoken words: Effects of situation and social group on oral word usage and frequency. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Iverson, J. M., Capirci, O., Longobardi, E. & Caselli, M. C. (1999). Gesturing in mother–child interactions. Cognitive Development 14, 57–75.Google Scholar
Kelly, S. D. (2001). Broadening the units of analysis in communication: Speech and nonverbal behaviours in pragmatic comprehension. Journal of Child Language 28, 325–49.Google Scholar
Kita, S. (ed.) (2003). Pointing: Where language, culture, and cognition meet. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lempers, J. D., Flavell, E. R. & Flavell, J. H. (1977). The development in very young children of tacit knowledge concerning visual perception. Genetic Psychology Monographs 95, 3–53.Google ScholarPubMed
Messer, D. J. (1978). The integration of mothers’ referential speech with joint play. Child Development 49 781–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Moore, C. & Dunham, P. J. (eds) (1995). Joint attention: Its origins and role in development. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Rheingold, H. L., Hay, D. F. & West, M. J. (1976). Sharing in the second year of life. Child Development 47, 1148–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schegloff, E. (1968). Sequencing in conversational openings. American Anthropologist 70, 32–46.Google Scholar
Schegloff, E. & Sacks, H. (1973). Opening up closings. Semiotica 8, 289–327.Google Scholar
Schnur, E. & Shatz, M. (1984). The role of maternal gesture in conversations with one-year-olds. Journal of Child Language 11, 29–41.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Snow, C. E. (1986). Conversations with children. In Fletcher, P. & Garman, M. (eds) Language acquisition, 2nd ed., 69–89. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Templin, M. C. (1957). Certain language skills in children: Their development and interrelationships. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M. (1995). Joint attention and social cognition. In Moore, C. & Dunham, P. J. (eds), Joint attention: Its origins and role in development, 103–130. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Tomasello, M. & Farrar, M. J. (1986). Joint attention and early language. Child Development 57, 1454–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Woodward, A. L. (2003). Infants' developing understanding of the link between looker and object. Developmental Science 6, 297–311.Google Scholar
Woodward, A. L. & Guajardo, J. J. (2002). Infants' understanding of the point gesture as an object-directed action. Cognitive Development 17, 1061–84.Google Scholar
Zukow, P. G. (1991). A socio-perceptual/ecological approach to lexical development: Affordances of the communication context. Anales de Psicologia 7, 151–63.Google Scholar