Improving Joint Engagement in Parent-Child Interaction

Abstract

The current study tested the effects of parent training on children's joint engagement in play interactions with their mothers. Seven preschool children with developmental delays and their mothers participated in a 12-week intervention program. They were matched for developmental and communication status to seven children in a delayed-treatment control group. Mothers were trained to encourage child participation in social interaction by being highly responsive and child-centered. Following intervention, mother-child dyads experienced significantly more episodes of joint engagement than control dyads. Moreover, the total duration of joint engagement and the mean length of joint engagement episodes also increased significantly. No treatment-induced changes were detected on a series of semi-structured tasks designed to measure joint attention, suggesting that dyadic changes in joint engagement did not generalize to unfamiliar contexts. The results of this pilot study indicate that joint engagement is amenable to change, and the results support the use of engagement states as an outcome measure.