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Three is not always a crowd: contexts of joint attention and language

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2007

JOANN P. BENIGNO ,
LAURA CLARK  and
M. JEFFREY FARRAR
JOANN P. BENIGNO
Affiliation:
Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota
LAURA CLARK
Affiliation:
University of Florida
M. JEFFREY FARRAR
Affiliation:
University of Florida
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Abstract

This study examined 32 children’s (M age=1;8 years) engagement in joint attention (JA) and the relation between JA and vocabulary size across mother–child (MC) and mother–child–sibling (MCS) contexts. In the MCS context, mothers engaged in JA more with one child than both children; they engaged in less JA with target child than they did in the MC context. JA style was generally unrelated across the contexts. Coordinated JA and children’s vocabulary were significantly related only for the MCS context. Findings suggest the number of social partners influences JA dynamics and multi-child contexts can be positive language learning environments.

Type
Note
Information
Journal of Child Language , Volume 34 , Issue 1 , February 2007 , pp. 175 - 187
Copyright
2007 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

Analyses and the preparation of this manuscript were supported by a National Institute of Mental Health National Research Service Award awarded to the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota (T32 MH 15755). Portions of this work were completed in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a senior honors thesis by the second author at the University of Florida.We would like to thank all of the families who participated in the study. We would also like to thank the members of the Child Language Lab for assisting with data collection, transcription, and coding, particularly Anisa Mohammed and Zachalis Rodriguez. Finally we thank Patrick J. Carroll and Scott Miller for their comments on earlier versions of this paper.