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Joint Attention in Parent–Child Dyads Involving Children with Selective Mutism: A Comparison Between Anxious and Typically Developing Children

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Abstract

Although joint attention processes are known to play an important role in adaptive social behavior in typical development, we know little about these processes in clinical child populations. We compared early school age children with selective mutism (SM; n = 19) versus mixed anxiety (MA; n = 18) and community controls (CC; n = 26) on joint attention measures coded from direct observations with their parent during an unstructured free play task and two structured tasks. As predicted, the SM dyads established significantly fewer episodes of joint attention through parental initiation acts than the MA and CC dyads during the structured tasks. Findings suggest that children with SM may withdraw from their parents during stressful situations, thus missing out on opportunities for learning other coping skills. We discuss the implications of the present findings for understanding the maintenance and treatment of SM.

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Acknowledgments

Portions of this paper were based the first author’s doctoral work conducted under the direction of Louis A. Schmidt and submitted to the School of Graduate Studies at McMaster University. This research was supported by a grant from the Ontario Mental Health Foundation (OMHF). The authors would like to thank Lindsay Bennett, Sue McKee, and Lisa Sparks for their assistance in data collection and coding. We would also like to thank the many children and their parents and teachers for their participation in the study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Neuroscience and Behaviour, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, L8S 4K1, Canada

    Matilda E. Nowakowski & Louis A. Schmidt

  2. Department of Counselling and Educational Psychology, University of Victoria, Victoria, BC, Canada

    Susan L. Tasker

  3. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Neurosciences, McMaster University, Hamilton, ON, Canada

    Charles E. Cunningham, Angela E. McHolm, Shannon Edison & Michael H. Boyle

  4. Child and Parent Resource Institute (CPRI), London, ON, Canada

    Jeff St. Pierre

Authors
  1. Matilda E. Nowakowski
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  2. Susan L. Tasker
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  3. Charles E. Cunningham
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  4. Angela E. McHolm
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  5. Shannon Edison
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  6. Jeff St. Pierre
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  7. Michael H. Boyle
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  8. Louis A. Schmidt
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Correspondence to Louis A. Schmidt.

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Nowakowski, M.E., Tasker, S.L., Cunningham, C.E. et al. Joint Attention in Parent–Child Dyads Involving Children with Selective Mutism: A Comparison Between Anxious and Typically Developing Children. Child Psychiatry Hum Dev 42, 78–92 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-010-0208-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10578-010-0208-z

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