Faculty Collaboration Database

Individual differences and the development of joint attention in infancy. Child Dev 2007;78(3):938-54

Date

05/23/2007

Pubmed ID

17517014

Pubmed Central ID

PMC2654237

DOI

10.1111/j.1467-8624.2007.01042.x

Scopus ID

2-s2.0-34248635954 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site)   364 Citations

Abstract

This study examined the development of joint attention in 95 infants assessed between 9 and 18 months of age. Infants displayed significant test-retest reliability on measures of following gaze and gestures (responding to joint attention, RJA) and in their use of eye contact to establish social attention coordination (initiating joint attention, IJA). Infants displayed a linear, increasing pattern of age-related growth on most joint attention measures. However, IJA was characterized by a significant cubic developmental pattern. Infants with different rates of cognitive development exhibited different frequencies of joint attention acts at each age, but did not exhibit different age-related patterns of development. Finally, 12-month RJA and 18-month IJA predicted 24-month language after controlling for general aspects of cognitive development.

Author List

Mundy P, Block J, Delgado C, Pomares Y, Van Hecke AV, Parlade MV

Author

Amy Van Hecke PhD Professor in the Psychology department at Marquette University

MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold

Age Factors
Attention
Cooperative Behavior
Female
Humans
Infant
Infant Behavior
Language
Male