When Are Children Socially Capable to Act in Joint Action Settings?

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Pedagogy - Pedagogic Psychology, grade: 1,0, Donau-Universität Krems (Department für interaktive Medien und Bildungstechnologien), language: English, abstract: The ability of acting jointly to achieve common goals seems to be distinctively of human nature and is important in order to take part in social life. However, the question of when this crucial capability for everyday life develops is a field quite new to and currently rather untouched by cognitive and neuronal sciences. Only a few studies deal with joint action settings in which infants of one or two years are supposed to act in cooperation with an adult or even with a same-aged peer.

This paper, therefore, aims at introducing some of these studies and their outcomes in order to discuss later on at which age children possess the social and cognitive skills needed to perform successfully in joint action settings.