Look At/Check X: An Attention-And-Approval-Seeking Device

ABSTRACT

In the home, parents and children are often co-present but engaged with different tasks. When children wish to engage their parents about something they have produced/are producing and to monitor their understanding of it, they need a means of obtaining both parental attention and understanding. I examine instances of children using the look at X directive (and its variant in South African English, check X) as an attention-and-approval-seeking device, where parents either respond by looking and approving or children pursue approval. By examining naturally occurring video-recorded interactions in the homes of two families with four-year-old children, I demonstrate that the directive sets in motion a pair of conditionally relevant responses of attending and approving. Through this practice, children monitor their own understanding of their production as an accomplishment and together parent and child (re)inforce normative expectations of children as apprentices and parents as knowledgeable authorities. Data are in South African English.

Acknowledgments

Thank you to Kevin Whitehead, Yumei Gan and Daniella Rafaely for their analytic insights. This research forms part of my doctoral thesis awarded by the University of the Witwatersrand in 2021 and funded by the (South African) National Research Foundation Special Innovation Scholarship. The views expressed in this article do not reflect those of the National Research Foundation or university.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the National Research Foundation South Africa [Special innovation scholarship].