Calibrating joint attention and affective stances in young children's peer interactions

The study investigates how children aged three to five years initiate interactions in a Swedish kindergarten. The study specifically emphasises how children use verbal, bodily and material resources to create joint attention and express emotions.

The results show that children often use affective and bodily attitudes when trying to get attention from peers. Children use both verbal signals, body language and objects in their surroundings to make something appear important. However, achieving a response is not always guaranteed. The peers’ reactions range from aligning with the speaker to neutral acknowledgements or direct contradictions. The study highlights that success in these interactions is crucial for group dynamics, as children’s ability to engage others has a significant impact on their social inclusion.

The researchers analyse 40 hours of video recording from two Swedish kindergartens using multimodal interaction analysis. They look at verbal, non-verbal, and material aspects of children’s interactions. The study focuses on situations in which children use heightened affect to attract attention, particularly verbal and bodily actions used to direct attention towards objects or events in their surroundings.

Strid, E., & Cekaite, A. (2022). Calibrating joint attention and affective stances in young children's peer interactions. Journal of Pragmatics, 198, 29–42.