Kidwell2006a
| Kidwell2006a | |
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| BibType | ARTICLE |
| Key | Kidwell2006a |
| Author(s) | Mardi Kidwell, Don H. Zimmerman |
| Title | 'Observability' in the interactions of very young children |
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| Tag(s) | EMCA, Conversation Analysis, Children, Nonverbal Communication, Embodied interaction, Gaze, Joint Attention, Misconduct |
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| Year | 2006 |
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| Journal | Communication Monographs |
| Volume | 73 |
| Number | 1 |
| Pages | 1-28 |
| URL | Link |
| DOI | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/03637750600559673 |
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Abstract
This paper demonstrates how children aged 1–2½ years monitor the attentional focus of their caregivers in situations of their sanctionable acts toward a peer (e.g., pushing) and organize their conduct to evade, or alternately draw, a caregiver's attention to these events. A large literature in the psychological sciences documents a number of attention organizing behaviors that emerge in children's first 2 years, and links these behaviors to children's early understandings of intentionality. We propose, however, that children's orientations to their caregivers, and whether or not they will intervene, derive from their abilities to assess a range of “real world” contingences having to do with the fundamental observability of their conduct, that is, with whether or not, and how, a caregiver comes to see their activities. Our investigation concerns the communication resources that enable children to “read” the conduct of others, and position their own actions by reference to the actions of others, in strategic ways.
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