The role of maternal attention-directing strategies in 9-month-old infants attaining joint engagement

Coordinated joint engagement (CJE) is a behavioral measure used in the infant–caregiver interaction paradigm to measure joint attention. To know how mothers scaffold infant attention to prompt joint engagement states, this study attempted to determine (a) which specific maternal attention-directing strategies facilitate CJE in mother–infant interactions and (b) how attention-directing strategies precede a range of infant engagement states. Free play in 33 low-SES dyads was analyzed sequentially, a method that reveals temporal relations between the behaviors involved in an interaction. Maintaining was the only strategy that preceded CJE, and Introducing and Redirecting preceded infant Engagement with Object, Onlooking, and Supported Joint Engagement. The results point to the scaffolding role of Maintaining and the mediating role of Introducing and Redirecting maternal strategies. To understand how low-SES infants attain CJE is important given the relation between joint attention and cognitive development. Implications of the results for interventions aimed at reducing socioeconomic inequities in early cognitive development are discussed.

► Free play activity of 33 low-SES dyads 9-month-old were analyzed sequentially.
► To determine how maternal behaviors precede infant engagement states.
► Maintaining preceded coordinated joint engagement.
► Scaffolding and mediating roles of maintaining, introducing and redirecting are discussed.