Joint responses to crying

One of the fascinating challenges in adult-child interaction is found in the fine-grained coordination of joint activities in the real time of play-interactions. In this contribution we take a closer look at caregiving activities that are jointly carried out by mothers and their five-year-old children. At this age, changing diapers, feeding, and comforting a crying baby (doll) is a challenging activity. The focus of our empirical study is on responses to crying. The investigation is innovative in so far as in prior research it was always the reaction by the mother (or the father or, not so often, by the sibling) that was under scrutiny. Here, we analyse sequentially how children comfort a lifelike doll together with their mother.