JOINT ENGAGEMENT OF MALAY-SPEAKING TYPICALLY-DEVELOPING CHILDREN

Abstract

Joint engagement (JE) is a state in which a child and a social partner attend to the same object or event. JE is a fundamental skill and important for the development of language and social skills in children. Parent-child interaction has been found as crucial for scaffolding children’s language skills development, including JE abilities. In this observational study, JE in 14 young Malay-speaking typically-developing (TD) children (M age = 64 months) were investigated during 20 minutes free-play interaction with their mothers. JE of TD children was coded and rated from video recordings using Joint Engagement Rating Inventory (JERI; Adamson, Bakeman, Suma et al., 2018). The results found that TD children displayed different types of JE which includes engagement with person as well with the object. Although other studies have documented JE of TD children, this was first known toexplore the different states of JE in young TD Malay-speaking children as observed during mother-child interaction.