Toward Interactive Synchrony: The Gaze Patterns of Mothers and Children in Three Age Groups

Abstract

The gaze patterns of 81 mother-child dyads (6, 20 and 36 months) were investigated during 20 minutes of free play in a laboratory setting. The results indicated that children at the three ages studied were not different in the total amount of time they looked at their mothers. The groups of mothers were significantly different with the difference primarily resulting from the looking patterns of the mothers of 6 month olds: these mothers looked for a longer total amount of time and longer too for each individual look when compared to mothers of older children. Mutual regard at each age was most often initiated by the mother and terminated by the child though mothers terminated more gazes at the older ages. At the two older ages there were more simultaneous initiations and terminations of mutual regard than at 6 months. Although adult synchrony was not observed in looking interactions of the oldest children, the increase in the simultaneity of mutual looks foreshadows the adult pattern.