Infants’ early visual attention and social engagement as developmental precursors to joint attention.

Abstract

This study examined infants’ early visual attention (at 1 month of age) and social engagement (4 months) as predictors of their later joint attention (12 and 18 months). The sample (n=325), drawn from the Maternal Lifestyle Study, a longitudinal multicenter project conducted at four centers of the NICHD Neonatal Research Network, included high-risk (cocaine exposed) and matched non-cocaine exposed infants. Hierarchical regressions revealed that infants’ attention orienting at 1 month significantly predicted more frequent initiating joint attention at 12 (but not 18) months of age. Social engagement at 4 months predicted initiating joint attention at 18 months. Results provide the first empirical evidence for the role of visual attention and social engagement behaviors as developmental precursors for later joint attention outcome.

Development of attention from birth to 5 months in infants at risk for autism spectrum disorder

“…In a subset of infants who also received a developmental evaluation at 12 months, we found that 3-month attention was associated with both social communication and, to a lesser extent, nonverbal cognitive development. This is somewhat inconsistent with a study by Salley et al (2016) that identified an association earlier in development between 1-month attention and 12-month social communication abilities in a non-ASD sample. It is possible that the present study was simply underpowered to detect this association at this early age.…”

“…Perra and Gattis (2010, 2012) observed a major transition in attentional engagement at 3 months of age, at which time infants increased time spent jointly engaged in object play with a caregiver, followed the attentional focus of a caregiver, and shifted attention between a caregiver and an object, all of which could be argued are foundational skills for the emergence of joint attention. In a recent study, attention skills at a much earlier age, 1 month, were associated with joint attention skills at 1 year of age (Salley et al, 2016).…”

Foundations of attention sharing: Orienting and responding to attention in term and preterm 5-month-old infants

“…Our results point toward the importance of attention to both people and objects as pre-requisites for joint attention, a foundational process for cognitive and communicative development ( Mundy & Newell, 2007 ; Salley & Colombo, 2016 ; Salley et al, 2016 ). Our findings suggest that 5 months is an important transitional period for sharing attention and are consistent with claims that joint attention might emerge from a developmental progression in which infants first share attention with one social partner (dyadic attention) and later share attention with a social partner and some third object (triadic attention) ( Kaye & Fogel, 1980 ; Salley et al, 2016 ). Our results also indicate that at 5 months, attention sharing is more likely to result from parents’ responding to infants’ attention to objects than infants’ responding to parents’ attention to objects.…”

“…The distribution of attention also changes during infancy, from primarily attending to people in the first weeks of life to primarily attending to objects by about the mid-point of the first year ( Bornstein, Cote, & Kwak, 2019 ; Brazelton, Koslowski, & Martin, 1974 ; Johnson, Dzierawiec, Ellis, & Morton, 1991 ; Kaye & Fogel, 1980 ; Peltola, Yrttiaho, & Leppänen, 2017 ). Evaluating infant attention to people versus objects has the potential to yield insights relevant to both typical and atypical development: attention to both people and objects is necessary for sharing attention with a social partner, which in turn plays an important role in cognition and communication ( Klin, Shultz, & Jones, 2015 ; Mundy & Newell, 2007 ; Mundy, 2018 ; Niedzwiecka, Ramotowska, & Tomalski, 2018 ; Peltola et al, 2017 ; Salley & Colombo, 2016 ; Salley et al, 2016 ). In one study evaluating this distribution of infant attention, parents played with their term infant at 2, 3, and 4 months in laboratory-based sessions ( Perra & Gattis, 2012 ).…”

I Look, You Smile: The First Mother–Child Communicative Interaction: A Longitudinal Study

“…The quality of the mother-child relationship and the type of maternal interaction are extremely important during this period (Haley & Stansbury, 2003;Little & Carter, 2005). The child starts to gain interest in objects and starts to develop an interest in interpersonal play, sharing with the mother the attention toward objects (Gustafsson et al, 2015;Legerstee & Barillas, 2003;Salley et al, 2016). Between the ages of 8 and 12 months, children become more intentionally communicative (Mundy & Willoughby, 1996).…”