This study aims to explore the validity of measuring joint attention through gaze coordination in computer-supported collaborative learning (CSCL) research. Gaze coordination, aligning visual attention in social contexts, aids comprehension and communication. Many CSCL researchers use gaze coordination to gauge joint attention quantitatively.…

Collaboration is a complex, multidimensional process; however, details of how multimodal features intersect and mediate group interactions have not been fully unpacked. Characterizing and analyzing the temporal patterns based on multimodal features is a challenging yet important work to advance our understanding of computer-supported collaborative…

This study examined the affordances of an embodied humanoid robot to engage children in play and learning from the perspective of embodied cognition in two studies as part of multiyear design research. In Study One, we observed how the robot's embodiment, accompanied by its sensors and movements, elicited embodied reactions of eleven children…

This study compared efforts to regain their infants' visual attention of 40 mothers (either deaf or hearing) and 40 9-month-old infants (either deaf or hearing). Findings indicated a greater reliance by deaf mothers on visual strategies to regain infant attention and a greater emphasis on vocalizations by hearing mothers, regardless of infant…

Fourteen mother-child dyads involving preschool children with autism and 14 matched dyads of typically developing children and mothers were observed during free play. Mothers of autistic children directed verbalizations to something within the child's focus of attention as often as other mothers. They directed verbalizations to something not…

Evaluation of social-cognitive skills in 23 young children with autism or other developmental delays found tests involving others' attention were more difficult for children with autism than tests involving others' behavior. However, the typical developmental pattern of first sharing, then following, and then directing attention or behavior was…

The effect of principal attention contingent upon tem on-task performance was examined in an unruly fourth-grade class. Principal attention was found to be a strong reinforcer in both experimental conditions, but percentage of on-task behavior during team consequences was higher than during individual consequences. (Author)

Joint attention and topic initiation in caregiver-child interactions were explored in relation to language gains of 28 children with Down syndrome (DS) and 17 typical children. DS caregivers spent more time in joint attention than controls. Receptive language gains were associated with caregivers maintaining attention to child-selected toys and…

This study was conducted to examine the developmental patterns in young children's ability to use others as a resource in problem-solving situations and to compare the roles that mothers and same-age peers play as resources for children in such situations. A total of 48 middle-class 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old children participated in the study with…

Qualitative analysis of videotape recordings of seven mothers and their sons with autism (ages 2 and 3) found that mothers mostly engaged in verbal regard (conversation) and directive behaviors. Sons were able to give some form of regard 69% of the time, mostly in the form of active task participation rather than verbal or visual regard.…

The onset and maintenance of visual attention to signing was observed in three profoundly deaf children (ages two and three) while interacting with their hearing mothers about a picture story. All children experienced problems with the need to focus simultaneously on the mother's signs and the picture book. Suggestions for developing visual…

This study investigated potential effects of auditory and other communicative experience on development of visual attention in 80 infants (tested at 9, 12, and 18 months), half deaf and half with deaf mothers. Results indicate that early visual attention is associated with and potentially influenced by a complex interaction of maturation,…

Longitudinal videotape recordings of six young children with autism and six age- and language-matched children with Down syndrome in structured play with their mothers were analyzed. Findings of reduced expression of positive affect by autistic subjects suggest that their known deficits in attention and affective responsiveness persisted even in…