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Dyadic activities and attention in the infant: A developmental study

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Abstract

Infants’ abilities to focus attention on objects are known to be related to mothers’ mobilizing behaviors. As delayed effects of maternal behaviors at 5 months may be observed in 8-month-olds, mothers may be considered as scaffolding their infant’s attention. However, all dyadic activities are probably not equally propitious to attention mobilizing. In a sample of 30 dyads, studied at 5 and 8 months of age, whole observations were split in four broad categories: care, dyadic play with objects, dyadic play without objects and infant alone. The duration of maternal mobilizing and infant attention focussing were studied within categories. Inter-dyads variability is high, while dyads are stable across ages. Even within the dyadic play with objects, mothers differ widely in the duration and way they mobilize attention. Five-month-olds still need their mother’s support, as they explore less when they are alone, while 8-month-olds are more autonomous. The impact and importance of the various types of dyadic activities on cognitive development are discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CNRS and University of Paris V, Paris, France

    François Findji, Marie-Germaine Pêcheux & Josette Ruel

  2. Laboratoire de Psychologie du Développement et de l’Education de l’Enfant, Université de Paris V, 46 rue Saint Jacques, 75005, Paris, France

    François Findji, Marie-Germaine Pêcheux & Josette Ruel

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  1. François Findji
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  2. Marie-Germaine Pêcheux
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  3. Josette Ruel
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Additional information

The research was partly supported by a grant from Inserm (n°. 859012)

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Findji, F., Pêcheux, MG. & Ruel, J. Dyadic activities and attention in the infant: A developmental study. Eur J Psychol Educ 8, 23–33 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172861

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03172861

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