Developmental changes in turn-taking dynamics of parent-child social interactions

Financiador

Organização

Publicações

Publication . Lourenço, Vladimiro; Serra, Juliana; Coutinho, Joana; Pereira, Alfredo F.; CTS - Centro de Tecnologia e Sistemas; UNINOVA-Instituto de Desenvolvimento de Novas Tecnologias; Elsevier Science B.V., Amsterdam.

Turn-transition timing in childhood has been examined by measuring response latency – that aggregates gap and overlap duration – in turn-transitions contingent to specific semantic categories. This contrasts with studies in infancy where the whole spectrum of temporal contingent vocalizations are examined, and gap and overlap duration is analyzed independently. We propose using the latter approach to investigate the continuities between infancy and childhood. In a cross-sectional design, we analyzed the vocalizations of 44 mother-child free-play interactions, ranging from three to five years of age. Frequency and duration were measured for gaps and overlaps, independently, and as an aggregated measure – floor-transfer offset (FTO). The effects of child's age and direction of turn-transition (child, mother) were assessed using generalized linear mixed modeling for each dependent variable (DV: FTO, gaps, overlaps). Although there was a slight increase in FTO and gap duration across ages, no significant effect of age was found for any of the DVs. There was an effect of turn-transition direction, for FTO and gap durations, but not for overlap duration. Specifically, mother-to-child turn-transitions produced significantly longer FTO and gap durations than child-to-mother turn-transitions, but had similarly timed overlaps. Results suggest that gaps and overlaps still have different developmental trajectories throughout childhood, and that overlap duration converges to adult standards, at least, by 3-years of age. Methodologically, we demonstrated the relevance of using complementary metrics (FTO, gap, overlap) to understand the developmental trajectories of turn-taking, and that examining all temporally contingent vocalizations can provide a valid and more inclusive measure of turn-transition duration in childhood.

2023-10Artigo científico

Acesso aberto

Ver mais

Observational measures of caregiver's touch behavior in infancy

Publication . Serra, Juliana F.; Lisboa, Isabel C.; Sampaio, Adriana; Pereira, Alfredo F.; CTS - Centro de Tecnologia e Sistemas; UNINOVA-Instituto de Desenvolvimento de Novas Tecnologias; Elsevier

The caregiver's touch behavior during early infancy is linked to multiple developmental outcomes. However, social touch remains a challenging construct to operationalize, and although observational tools have been a gold standard for measuring touch in caregiver-infant interactions, no systematic review has been conducted before. We followed the PRISMA guidelines and reviewed the literature to describe and classify the main characteristics of the available observational instruments. Of the 3042 publications found, we selected 45 that included an observational measure, and from those we identified 12 instruments. Most of the studies were of infants younger than six months of age and assessed touch in two laboratory tasks: face-to-face interaction and still-face procedure. We identified three approaches for evaluating the caregiver's touch behavior: strictly behavioral (the observable touch behavior), functional (the functional role of the touch behavior), or mixed (a combination of the previous two). Half of the instruments were classified as functional, 25% as strictly observational, and 25% as mixed. The lack of conceptual and operational uniformity and consistency between instruments is discussed.

2023-07Recensão

Acesso aberto

Ver mais

Entidade financiadora

Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia

Programa de financiamento

Investigador FCT

Número da atribuição

IF/00217/2013/CP1158/CT0001