The impact of maternal gaze responsiveness on infants’ gaze following and later vocabulary development

Abstract

Research has shown that infants’ language development is influenced by their gaze following—an ability linked to their cognitive and social development. Following social learning approaches, this pilot study explored whether variations in gaze following and later vocabulary scores relate to early mother–infant interactions by focusing on the role of mothers’ gaze responsiveness in infants’ attentional and language development. We recruited 15 mother–child pairs in Poland and assessed their engagement in joint attention episodes. Results indicate that mothers foster their infants' gaze-following ability by providing them with numerous opportunities to participate in the task. We also confirmed a correlation between infants’ gaze-following ability at 6 months and their vocabulary scores at 24 months. However, combining both infants’ gaze following and mothers’ gaze monitoring as predictors in one model revealed that maternal gaze monitoring was a stronger predictor of infants’ later vocabulary growth. Overall, this study emphasizes that mothers’ gaze responsiveness is a crucial feature of scaffolding that impacts on infants’ gaze following and language development.