FIRST STEPS A longitudinal study investigating the imitative, communicative, motoric and cognitive development of infants from birth to 18 months. Hypotheses Infant attention would influence maternal behaviour over the 10 minutes of interaction Method and Procedure Mother-Infant object centred interactions in a patterned tent with toys. Asked to interact with their infant for 10 minutes as they would normally. Interactions were coded separately for the infant’s attentional state and mother’s frequency variation and duration of object use as a method of attention-directing with an 80% agreement Coding Approach Adaptation of Bakeman and Adamson’s approach with the sub categories for onlooking person, object chosen by mother and alternative object, to reflect visual attention as the main form of engagement at 2 months. By dividing onlooking behaviours an association between infant attention in the initial period of interaction and the maternal behaviour in the subsequent period of interaction Infant’s Engagement States and Maternal Attention-Directing at 2 Months Kate Ellis, Elena Sakkalou, Nia Fowler, & Merideth Gattis School of Psychology, Cardiff University Infant Attention Development Through Infancy Bakeman and Adamson (1983) Engagement states from 5 months during mother and peer interactions At 6 months with mothers –Unengaged 21% –Onlooking12% –Person 12% –Object 37% –Passive Joint 17% –Coordinated Joint 2% Maternal Behaviour Strategies employed by the mother to engage the attention of the infant can either be maintaining or redirecting. If strategies are responsive can support development of attention, and related developmental milestones (Landry, Smith, Swank and Miller- Loncar, 2000) Maternal responsiveness at 24 and 36 months supports development of attention control (Schmidt & Lawson, 2002). Garstein, Crawford & Robertson (2008) parental synchronicity and reciprocity predictors of duration of orienting at 12 months Maternal Directiveness at 12 months was negatively associated with later language development (Tomasello & Todd, 1983) Infant habituation rate at 5 months and temperament at 13 and 20 months were predictive of mother’s behaviour at 20 months Danis, Bourdais & Ruel (2000) Infant’s exploration and play within the non-social world has impacts affect mirroring of mothers to reinforce exploration (Jonsson & Clinton, 2006) Bidirectional contingency of maternal characteristics and infant contribution of action on objects and attention state Results Infants spent most time onlooking, with onlooking mother and the mother’s chosen objects consisting of the majority of time spent in attentional state. Significant regressions were found: Time spent onlooking mother’s object and time mother spent engaging with objects R2=.146, F (1,36)=6.139, p<0.05 Duration of each infant look to alternative object and the frequency of object use by mother R2=. 167 F (1,36)=7.242, p<0.01 Conclusions Infants spend most time in the state of onlooking, with onlooking mother’s object most frequent. Infant’s behaviour predictive of subsequent object use by mother’s Acknowledgements Merideth Gattis Elena Sakkalou Nia Fowler Elma Hilbrink Sylwia Matuszewska