Joint Attention Episodes Research Articles

Joint attention in infant-toddler early childhood programs: Its dynamics and potential for collaborative learning

This article examines how joint attention episodes constitute a core feature of relational pedagogy for infants and toddlers. It draws on social interactionist approaches to language and cognitive development to propose that joint attention may afford significant current and future potential for young children’s learning. However, most joint attention research has taken place within experimental settings, so current definitions of joint attention do not take into account the dynamic group-based nature of the infant-toddler room. In this article, the author presents findings from a study of the language environment of infant-toddler rooms to examine the characteristics of joint attention episodes as they naturally occurred in infant-toddler programs. The author illustrates how qualitatively different episodes of educator–infant joint attention support both language and cognitive development. In doing so, she proposes a theoretical model to represent the learning potential of these shared experiences with the aim of enhancing current understandings of what it means to learn collaboratively in infant-toddler group settings.

The relationship between joint attention and theory of mind in neurotypical adults.

Joint attention (JA) is hypothesized to have a close relationship with developing theory of mind (ToM) capabilities. We tested the co-occurrence of ToM and JA in social interactions between adults with no reported history of psychiatric illness or neurodevelopmental disorders. Participants engaged in an experimental task that encouraged nonverbal communication, including JA, and also ToM activity. We adapted an in-lab variant of experience sampling methods (Bryant et al., 2013) to measure ToM during JA based on participants' subjective reports of their thoughts while performing the task. This experiment successfully elicited instances of JA in 17/20 dyads. We compared participants' thought contents during episodes of JA and non-JA. Our results suggest that, in adults, JA and ToM may occur independently.

Modality use in joint attention between hearing parents and deaf children.

The present study examined differences in modality use during episodes of joint attention between hearing parent-hearing child dyads and hearing parent-deaf child dyads. Hearing children were age-matched to deaf children. Dyads were video recorded in a free play session with analyses focused on uni- and multimodality use during joint attention episodes. Results revealed that adults in hearing parent-deaf child dyads spent a significantly greater proportion of time interacting with their children using multiple communicative modalities than adults in hearing parent-hearing child dyads, who tended to use the auditory modality (e.g., oral language) most often. While these findings demonstrate that hearing parents accommodate their children’s hearing status, we observed greater overall time spent in joint attention in hearing parent-hearing child dyads than hearing parent-deaf child dyads. Our results point to important avenues for future research on how parents can better accommodate their child’s hearing status through the use of multimodal communication strategies.

Putting the "Joy" in joint attention: affective-gestural synchrony by parents who point for their babies.

Despite a growing body of work examining the expression of infants’ positive emotion in joint attention contexts, few studies have examined the moment-by-moment dynamics of emotional signaling by adults interacting with babies in these contexts. We invited 73 parents of infants (three fathers) to our laboratory, comprising parent-infant dyads with babies at 6 (n = 15), 9 (n = 15), 12 (n = 15), 15 (n = 14), and 18 (n = 14) months of age. Parents were asked to sit in a chair centered on the long axis of a room and to point to distant dolls (2.5 m) when the dolls were animated, while holding their children in their laps. We found that parents displayed the highest levels of smiling at the same time that they pointed, thus demonstrating affective/referential synchrony in their infant-directed communication. There were no discernable differences in this pattern among parents with children of different ages. Thus, parents spontaneously encapsulated episodes of joint attention with positive emotion.

Communication patterns between parents and children: Comparing mothers and fathers in different learner contexts

ABSTRACTLanguage use and joint attention (JA) strategies were examined during interactions between francophone mothers and fathers and either their birth children (n = 10) or their internationally adopted children from China (n = 8), once when the children were 15 months old and again at 20 months, on average. Results showed that mothers engaged in more JA episodes and tended to talk more with their children than did fathers; however, this was influenced by the language-learning situation of the child. Specifically, the adoptive parents engaged more with their children than did the birth parents, and the behaviors of the internationally adopted mothers and fathers were more similar to each other than to those of the birth parents, arguably to support their children's unique language-learning situation. However, in contrast to a previous study that examined JA with adoptive mothers, the adoptive fathers’ interaction styles with their children at 15 months were not related to children's vocabularies at 20 months as has been observed for mothers.

Temporal analysis of attentional processes in spontaneous interactions between people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities and their support workers

Few studies examined joint attention in interactions with people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD), although being an important component of high-quality interaction. The purpose of this study is to describe initiating joint attention behaviour from people with PIMD and their support workers as well as the sequential relationship between initiating joint attention behaviour and attention episodes in spontaneous interactions. Video observations of 28 support worker-client dyads were coded using partial interval coding. Results show much variation across persons and dyads. Within the support worker-client dyad, there is not much joint attention but shared attention is frequently occurring. In general, people with PIMD are directing the attention of their interaction partner at low rates. The support workers are frequently directing the attention of the clients towards a topic of interest but not often through the tactile modality. The occurrence of an attention episode cannot be predicted on the basis of preceding initiating joint attention behaviour of the interaction partners. This study presents directions for future research and implications for practice. It may increase support workers' knowledge of their own contributions, strengths and weaknesses in directing and maintaining attention within interactions with people with PIMD.

“Gaze leading”: Initiating simulated joint attention influences eye movements and choice behavior.

Recent research in adults has made great use of the gaze cuing paradigm to understand the behavior of the follower in joint attention episodes. We implemented a gaze leading task to investigate the initiator--the other person in these triadic interactions. In a series of gaze-contingent eye-tracking studies, we show that fixation dwell time upon and reorienting toward a face are affected by whether that individual face shifts its eyes in a congruent or an incongruent direction in response to the participant's eye movement. Gaze leading also biased affective responses toward the faces and attended objects. These findings demonstrate that leading the eyes of other individuals alters how we explore and evaluate our social environment.

가정문해활동, 어머니의 언어적 행동 및 영아-어머니 간 공동주의와 영아의 언어·인지 발달간의 관계

This study was conducted in order to identify the relationship between the home literacy activities, mothers` verbal behavior, toddler-mother joint attention and the language-cognitive development of toddlers. The language-cognitive development of toddlers was assessed by means of the Mental Scale from the Korean Bayley Scale of Infant Development II (K-BSID-II). The home literacy activities were measured by means of the questionnaire used by You (2009), which was partly modified from Shapiro (1979). Lee & Kim (2004)`s categories was used to observe the mothers` verbal behaviors during shared book reading; joint attention episodes were observed by classification categories for engagement condition (Bakeman & Adamson, 1984). One of the more important conclusions of this study is our suggestion that mothers` verbal behaviors and the toddler-mother coordinated joint attention were significantly related to the language-cognitive development of toddlers as it takes place within low-income families.

Joint Attention in Toddlerhood Predicts Internalizing Problems at Early School Age

The authors examined the longitudinal relation between joint attention and socioemotional functioning in a low-risk, typically developing sample of children when the children were toddlers and again during the early school-age years. Fifty-eight mothers and their children were observed in the home or laboratory engaging in 1 unstructured and 4 semistructured tasks designed to assess joint attention episodes when the children were toddlers. Approximately 4 years later, the mother-child dyads were contacted again and mothers completed the Child Behavior Checklist as a measure of their children's socioemotional outcome at the early school years. The authors found that lower frequencies of joint attention episodes at toddlerhood predicted higher internalizing behaviors at early school age. Preliminary findings are discussed in terms of their theoretical implications for work on early mother-child interactions and children's typical and atypical sociemotional development.

Attentional processes in interactions between people with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities and direct support staff

Few studies have examined joint attention in interactions with persons with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD), despite its important role in high-quality interaction. The purpose of this study is to describe the attention-directing behaviours of persons with PIMD and their direct support staff and the attention episodes resulting from their interactions, and to understand how these variables relate to each other. Video observations of 17 staff–client dyads were coded using partial interval recording. The results showed considerable variation across individuals and dyads. In general, persons with PIMD directed the attention of staff members infrequently. The staff members frequently directed their clients’ attention towards a topic of interest but did not often use the tactile modality. Within the staff–client dyad, there was not much joint attention; however, shared attention episodes occurred frequently. Shared attention and joint attention are strongly correlated. A negative correlation was found between clients not using attention-directing behaviours and staff members using tactile methods to direct the attention, and joint attention episodes. This study presents both directions for future research and practical implications.

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

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.

Predictive gaze cues affect face evaluations: The effect of facial emotion

When we see someone change their direction of gaze, we spontaneously follow their eyes because we expect people to look at interesting objects. Bayliss and Tipper (2006) examined the consequences of observing this expectancy being either confirmed or violated by faces producing reliable or unreliable gaze cues. Participants viewed different faces that would consistently look at the target, or consistently look away from the target: The faces that consistently looked towards targets were subsequently chosen as being more trustworthy than the faces that consistently looked away from targets. The current work demonstrates that these gaze contingency effects are only detected when faces create a positive social context by smiling, but not in the negative context when all the faces held angry or neutral expressions. These data suggest that implicit processing of the reward contingencies associated with gaze cues relies on a positive emotional expression to maintain expectations of a favourable outcome of joint attention episodes.

The Effect of High-tech AAC System Position on the Joint Attention of Infants without Disabilities

Joint attention is critical for language development in children. Children with complex communication needs have additional challenges in managing their joint attention, and there is minimal information on how to reduce these demands. Sixteen infants without disabilities and their caregivers participated in a within-subjects design with two storybook reading interactions. In reading, the researcher either held a high-tech AAC system directly in front of herself (aligned with eye-gaze) or to the side (divided from eye-gaze). The frequency and duration of coordinated and passive joint attention episodes were analyzed. The aligned condition resulted in significantly greater frequency and duration of coordinated joint attention than passive joint attention in episodes involving the AAC system. Age was significantly related to frequency and duration of joint attention only in the aligned condition. Future directions and clinical implications are discussed.

Anticipatory smiling: Linking early affective communication and social outcome

In anticipatory smiles, infants appear to communicate pre-existing positive affect by smiling at an object and then turning the smile toward an adult. We report two studies in which the precursors, development, and consequences of anticipatory smiling were investigated. Study 1 revealed a positive correlation between infant smiling at 6 months and the level of anticipatory smiling at 8 and 10 months during joint attention episodes, as well as a positive correlation between anticipatory smiling and parent-rated social expressivity scores at 30 months. Study 2 confirmed a developmental increase in the number of infants using anticipatory smiles between 9 and 12 months that had been initially documented in the Study 1 sample [Venezia, M., Messinger, D. S., Thorp, D., & Mundy, P. (2004). The development of anticipatory smiling. Infancy, 6(3), 397–406]. Additionally, anticipatory smiling at 9 months positively predicted parent-rated social competence scores at 30 months. Findings are discussed with regard to the importance of anticipatory smiling in early socioemotional development.

Does improving joint attention in low‐quality child‐care enhance language development?

This study examined effects of professional development for child‐care staff on language acquisition of children ages 14–36 months. Child‐care staff from 44 child‐care centres agreed to participate in the study. Child‐care staff from one‐half of the child‐care centres were randomly assigned to a one‐time, four‐hour workshop followed by three classroom visits over the subsequent three months. This treatment was designed to increase frequency and quality of joint attention episodes between the child‐care staff and the toddlers. Child‐care staff from the remaining 22 centres were assigned to a wait‐list control group. Toddlers (N = 121) in both the groups (n treatment = 64; n control = 57) were assessed with a measure of language acquisition after six months. While there were no significant differences on total language acquisition between groups, treatment group toddlers whose child‐care providers engaged in more frequent and longer bouts of joint attention acquired more language. The results of this study support that when child‐care staff engage in longer and higher quality bouts of joint attention with toddlers they can affect language acquisition.

The Development of Anticipatory Smiling.

When do infants begin to communicate positive affect about physical objects to their social partners? We examined developmental changes in the timing of smiles during episodes of initiating joint attention that involved an infant gazing between an object and a social partner. Twenty-six typically developing infants were observed at 8, 10, and 12 months during the Early Social-Communication Scales, a semistructured assessment for eliciting initiating joint attention and related behaviors. The proportion of infant smiling during initiating joint attention episodes did not change with age, but there was a change in the timing of the smiles. The likelihood of infants smiling at an object and then gazing at the experimenter while smiling (anticipatory smiling) increased between 8 and 10 months and remained stable between 10 and 12 months. The increase in the number of infants who smiled at an object and then made eye contact suggests a developing ability to communicate positive affect about an object.

Verbal encouragement and joint attention in 18-month-old infants

The effects of three different attention-directing actions toward familiar and unfamiliar objects on 18-month-olds’ frequency of establishing and maintaining episodes of joint attention were examined. The results demonstrated that the addition of verbal information to gestures promoted longer but not more episodes of joint attention. The results also indicated that adults’ verbal encouragements were particularly effective in promoting joint attention when the infant was unfamiliar with the target object. The results are discussed in terms of the role different gestures play in the promotion and continuation of joint attention in infancy.

Joint attention and disorganized attachment status in infants at risk.

The development of joint attention skills is a major milestone of infancy. Recent research suggests that the development of these skills may be affected by disorganized (D) attachment. This hypothesis was examined in a longitudinal study of attachment and joint attention skill development in a sample of infants at risk for developmental-behavioral morbidity. The results revealed that toddlers with D classifications initiated joint attention with an experimenter significantly less often than did secure, or even other insecure, toddlers. However, no group differences in the capacity to respond to the joint attention bids of others were observed in this study. These data suggest that a disturbance in the tendency to initiate episodes of joint attention with others may be indicative of early social-cognitive and social-emotional disturbance among infants affected by disorganized attachment status. Theory and research is reviewed to suggest that an early impairment in joint attention facility may make a significant contribution to risk for negative cognitive and emotional outcomes among these infants.

Individual Differences in Infant Skills as Predictors of Child‐Caregiver Joint Attention and Language

Current research suggests that the extent to which child‐caregiver dyads engage in interactions involving episodes of joint or coordinated attention can have a significant impact on early lexical acquisition. In this regard it has been recognized that individual differences in early developing child communication skills, such as capacity to follow gaze and early infant language, may contribute to these child‐caregiver interactional patterns, as well as to subsequent language development. To address this expectation, 21 infant‐parent dyads were recruited for participation in a longitudinal study. Early infant language, responding to joint attention skill, and cognitive development were assessed at 12 months of age. Child‐caregiver joint attention episodes, as well as responding to joint attention skill and child language, were assessed at 18 months of age. Developmental outcome, using the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories and the Bayley Scales of Infant Development‐II, was assessed at 21 and 24 months of age. Consistent with previous findings, results indicated that individual differences in child‐caregiver episodes of joint attention were related to language at 18 months. In addition, though, 12 month vocabulary and responding to joint attention skill were associated with some aspects of 18 month child‐caregiver interaction, as well as subsequent language development. In general, 12 month child measures and 18 month child‐caregiver interaction measures appeared to make unique contributions to language development in this sample. These results suggest the need to further consider the role of infant skills in the connections between child‐caregiver joint attention episodes and language development.

VERBAL LABELS AND GESTURAL ROUTINES IN PARENTAL COMMUNICATION WITH YOUNG CHILDREN

Infants initially use words and symbolic gestures in markedly similar ways, to name and refer to objects. The goal of these studies is to examine how parental verbal and gestural input shapes infants' expectations about the communicative functions of words and gestures. The studies reported here suggest that infants may initially accept both words and gestures as symbols because parents often produce both verbal labels and gestural routines within the same joint-attention contexts. In two studies, we examined the production of verbal and gestural labels in parental input during joint-attention episodes. In Study 1, parent-infant dyads engaged in a picture-book reading task in which parents introduced their infants to drawings of unfamiliar objects (e.g., accordion). Parents' verbal labeling far outstripped their gestural communication, but the number of gestures produced was non-trivial and was highly predictive of infant gestural production. In Study 2, parent-infant dyads engaged in a free-play session with familiar objects. In this context, parents produced both verbal and gestural symbolic acts frequently with reference to objects. Overall, these studies support an input-driven explanation for why infants acquire both words and gestures as object names, early in development.