Participation and engagement
Some possible challenges for research on early social interaction
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/rcsi.30588Keywords:
participation; engagement; early social interaction; developmental psychology), caregive-child social interaction, participation, engagement, early social interaction, child focused conversation analysis, psycho-social formulationsAbstract
The study of caregiver–child social interaction during infancy and the early years has expanded considerably over the last 30–40 years as a result of technological advances and associated methods of analysis. Through a consideration of recent research on the emergence of participation in social interaction, this paper considers whether sufficient attention is paid to the background presuppositions and assumptions underscoring contemporary approaches in the field. Following introductory comments on different aspects of three perspectives – child-focused conversation analysis; developmental social interaction; and psychosocial formulations – a number of issues, challenges and puzzles are highlighted through an examination of examples from recently presented research. Concluding comments focus on the value of seeking to ensure that the interdependencies between background theory, and data analysis and interpretation, remains a central focus for work on children and social interaction.
References
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Forrester, M. A. & Reason, D. (2006). Competency and participation in acquiring a mastery of language: A reconsideration of the idea of membership. Sociological Review, 54(3), 446–466. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2006.00625.x
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Nomikou, I. & Demuth, C. (2015). Panel: The emergence of participation: A developmental perspective. Paper presented at the ‘Bodies in Interaction’ Conference, University of Basel, Switzerland, 25–27 June.
Nomikou, I., Rohlfing, K. & Raczaszek-Leonardi, J. (2015). Becoming a participant: Shaping infants’ dialogical actions in repeated actions. Paper presented at the ‘Bodies in Interaction’ Conference, University of Basel, Switzerland, 25–27 June.
Ochs, E. & Schiefflein, B. (1979). Developmental pragmatics. London: Academic Press.
O’Reilly, M., Lester, J.N. & Muskett, T. (2016). Children’s claims to knowledge regarding their mental health experiences and practitioners’ negotiation of the problem. Patient Education and Counseling, 99(6), 905–910.
Papoušek, M., & Papoušek, H. (1981). Musical elements in infant’s vocalisations: Their significance for communication, cognition and creativity. Advances in Infancy Research, 1, 163–224.
Reddy, V. (2008). How infants know minds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Rock, A. M., Trainor, L. J. & Addison, T. L. (1999). Distinctive messages in infantdirected lullabies and play songs. Developmental Psychology, 35(2), 527–534. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.35.2.527
Schaffer, H. R. (1984). The child’s entry into a social world. New York: Academic Press.
Schegloff, E. A. (2007). Sequence organization in interaction: A primer in conversation analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511791208
Shakespeare, P. (1998). Aspects of confused speech: A study of verbal interaction between confused and normal speakers. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Takada, A. (2015). Socialization of toddlers through participating in singing and dancing activity of multi-aged child group of the Xun of north-central Namibia. Paper presented at the ‘Bodies in Interaction’ Conference, University of Basel, Switzerland, 25–27 June.
Trevarthen, C. & Aitken, K. J. (2001). Infant intersubjectivity research: Research, theory and clinical applications. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 42(1), 3–48. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00701
Trevarthen, C. & Hubley, P. (1978). Secondary intersubjectivity: Confidence, confiding and acts of meaning in the first year. In A. Lock (ed.), Action gesture and symbol (pp. 183–229). London: Academic Press.
Tronick, E. (2007). The neurobehavioural and social-emotional development of infants and children. New York: Norton.
Tronick, E. & Weinberg, K. M. (1997). Depressed mothers and infants: Failure to from dyadic states of consciousness. In L. Murray & J. Cooper (eds), Postpartum depression and child development. (pp. 54–81). New York: Guildford Press.
Tronick, E., Als, H., Adamxon, L., Wise, S. & Brazelton, B. (1978). The infant’s response to entrapment between contradictory messages in face-to-face interaction. American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 1, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0002-7138(09)62273-1
Watson (2015). De-reifying categories. In R. Fitzgerald & W. Housley (eds), Advances in membership categorisation analysis (p. 23–50). London: Sage.
Winnicott, D. (1971). Playing and reality. London: Routledge.
Wootton, A. (1997). Interaction and the development of mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511519895
Collis, G. M. & Schaffer, H. R. (1975). Synchronization of visual attention in mother–infant pairs. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 16(4), 315–320. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-7610.1975.tb00365.x
Demuth, C. (2015). Ways with words, song, body and voice: Cultural forms of crafting infant’s participation through proto-musical communication. Paper presented at the ‘Bodies in Interaction’ Conference, University of Basel, Switzerland, 25–27 June.
Demuth, C., Keller, H. & Yovsi, R. D. (2012). Cultural models in communication with infants: Lessons from Kikaikelaki, Cameroon and Muenster, Germany. Journal of Early Childhood Research, 10(1), 70–87. https://doi.org/10.1177/1476718X11403993
Fantasia, V., Galbusera, L. & Fasulo, A. (2015a). Grounding participation: Exploring the interactional organisation of postpartum depressed mothers and infants. Paper presented at the ‘Bodies in Interaction’ Conference, University of Basel, Switzerland, 25–27 June.
Fantasia, V., Galbusera, L. & Fasulo, A. (2015b). Rethinking intrusiveness: A sequential analysis of timing and contingency in mother–infant interaction. Unpublished manuscript (submitted to Infant and Child Development).
Forrester, M. A. & Reason, D. (2006). Competency and participation in acquiring a mastery of language: A reconsideration of the idea of membership. Sociological Review, 54(3), 446–466. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-954X.2006.00625.x
Garfinkel, H. & Sacks, H. (1970). On formal structures of practical actions. In J. C. McKinney & E. Tiryakian (eds), Theoretical sociology: Perspectives and developments (pp. 337–365). New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Goodwin, C. (2015). Inhabiting each others’ actions: Co-operative action as a matrix for participation in distinctively human sociality. Paper presented at the ‘Bodies in Interaction’ Conference, University of Basel, Switzerland, 25–27 June.
Gratier, M. (2003). Expressive timing and interactional synchrony between mothers and infants: Cultural similarities, cultural differences, and the immigration experience. Cognitive Development, 18, 533–555. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cogdev.2003.09.009
Gratier, M., Devouche, E., Guellai, B., Infanti, R., Yilmaz, E. & Parlato-Oliveira, E. (2015a). Early development of turn-taking in vocal interaction between mothers and infants. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1167. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2015.01167
Gratier, M., Guellai, B. & Devouche, E. (2015b). Turn-taking in proto-conversations between mothers and 3-4-month-old infants. Paper presented at the ‘Bodies in Interaction’ Conference, University of Basel, Switzerland, 25–27 June.
Housley, W. & Fitzgerald, R. (2015). Introduction to membership categorisation analysis. In R. Fitzgerald & W. Housley (eds), Advances in membership categorisation analysis (pp. 1–22). London: Sage.
Hutchby I. & O’Reilly, M. (2010). Children’s participation and the familial moral order in family therapy. Discourse Studies, 12(1), 49–64. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445609357406
Keel, S. (2015). Socialization: Parent–child interaction in everyday life. Farnham: Ashgate.
Kidwell, M. (2011). Epistemics and embodiment in the interactions of very young children. In T. Stivers, M. Lorenza & S. Jakob (eds), The morality of knowledge (pp. 257–282). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/cbo9780511921674.012
Klein, M. ([1936] 1952). Some theoretical conclusions regarding the emotional life of the infant. In M. Klein, P. Heimann, S. Isaacs & J. Riviere (eds), Developments in psychoanalysis (pp. 198–236). London: Hogarth Press.
Lerner, G. H. & Zimmerman, D. (2003). Action and the appearance of action in the conduct of very young children. In P. J. Glenn, C. D. LeBaron & J. Mandelbaum (eds), Studies in language and social interaction (pp. 441–457). New York: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Malloch, S. & Trevarthen, C. (eds). (2009). Communicative musicality. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Moehler, E., Brunner, R., Wiebel, A., Reck, C. & Resch, F. (2006). Maternal depressive symptoms in the postnatal period are associated with long-term impairment of mother–child bonding. Archives of Women’s Mental Health, 9(5), 273–278. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00737-006-0149-5
Mondada, L. (2015). Revisiting participation: Langauge and bodies in interaction. Paper presented at the ‘Bodies in Interaction’ Conference, University of Basel, Switzerland, 25–27 June.
Murray, L. & Cooper, C. (1997). Effects of postnatal depression on infant development. Archives of Disorder in Childhood, 77, 99–101. https://doi.org/10.1136/adc.77.2.99
Nomikou, I. & Demuth, C. (2015). Panel: The emergence of participation: A developmental perspective. Paper presented at the ‘Bodies in Interaction’ Conference, University of Basel, Switzerland, 25–27 June.
Nomikou, I., Rohlfing, K. & Raczaszek-Leonardi, J. (2015). Becoming a participant: Shaping infants’ dialogical actions in repeated actions. Paper presented at the ‘Bodies in Interaction’ Conference, University of Basel, Switzerland, 25–27 June.
Ochs, E. & Schiefflein, B. (1979). Developmental pragmatics. London: Academic Press.
O’Reilly, M., Lester, J.N. & Muskett, T. (2016). Children’s claims to knowledge regarding their mental health experiences and practitioners’ negotiation of the problem. Patient Education and Counseling, 99(6), 905–910.
Papoušek, M., & Papoušek, H. (1981). Musical elements in infant’s vocalisations: Their significance for communication, cognition and creativity. Advances in Infancy Research, 1, 163–224.
Reddy, V. (2008). How infants know minds. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Rock, A. M., Trainor, L. J. & Addison, T. L. (1999). Distinctive messages in infantdirected lullabies and play songs. Developmental Psychology, 35(2), 527–534. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.35.2.527
Schaffer, H. R. (1984). The child’s entry into a social world. New York: Academic Press.
Schegloff, E. A. (2007). Sequence organization in interaction: A primer in conversation analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511791208
Shakespeare, P. (1998). Aspects of confused speech: A study of verbal interaction between confused and normal speakers. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Takada, A. (2015). Socialization of toddlers through participating in singing and dancing activity of multi-aged child group of the Xun of north-central Namibia. Paper presented at the ‘Bodies in Interaction’ Conference, University of Basel, Switzerland, 25–27 June.
Trevarthen, C. & Aitken, K. J. (2001). Infant intersubjectivity research: Research, theory and clinical applications. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 42(1), 3–48. https://doi.org/10.1111/1469-7610.00701
Trevarthen, C. & Hubley, P. (1978). Secondary intersubjectivity: Confidence, confiding and acts of meaning in the first year. In A. Lock (ed.), Action gesture and symbol (pp. 183–229). London: Academic Press.
Tronick, E. (2007). The neurobehavioural and social-emotional development of infants and children. New York: Norton.
Tronick, E. & Weinberg, K. M. (1997). Depressed mothers and infants: Failure to from dyadic states of consciousness. In L. Murray & J. Cooper (eds), Postpartum depression and child development. (pp. 54–81). New York: Guildford Press.
Tronick, E., Als, H., Adamxon, L., Wise, S. & Brazelton, B. (1978). The infant’s response to entrapment between contradictory messages in face-to-face interaction. American Academy of Child Psychiatry, 1, 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0002-7138(09)62273-1
Watson (2015). De-reifying categories. In R. Fitzgerald & W. Housley (eds), Advances in membership categorisation analysis (p. 23–50). London: Sage.
Winnicott, D. (1971). Playing and reality. London: Routledge.
Wootton, A. (1997). Interaction and the development of mind. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511519895
Published
2017-06-15
Issue
Section
Articles
How to Cite
Forrester, M. (2017). Participation and engagement: Some possible challenges for research on early social interaction. Research on Children and Social Interaction, 1(1), 55-76. https://doi.org/10.1558/rcsi.30588
