Responding to joint attention as a developmental catalyst: Longitudinal associations with language and social responsiveness

Abstract

Joint attention (JA), infants' ability to engage in triadic attention with another person and a separate object or event, emerges in infancy. Responding to joint attention (RJA) develops earlier than initiating joint attention (IJA) and may benefit from a reconceptualization from a competence to a skill that varies in performance. Investigating associations between RJA performance and important skills of toddlerhood such as language, social responsiveness, and executive function (EF) in typically developing samples can better elucidate how RJA may serve as a developmental precursor to later dimensional skills, with implications for both typical and atypical development. Here, 210 (82% White) infants completed the Dimensional Joint Attention Assessment (DJAA), a naturalistic play-based assessment of RJA, at 8-15 months. At 16-38 months social responsiveness, verbal ability, and EF were assessed. Multilevel models showed that DJAA scores were associated with later verbal abilities and parent-reported social responsiveness. Exploratory analyses showed trend-level associations between RJA and EF. Results establish the content validity of the DJAA as a measure of RJA, and longitudinal associations with later verbal ability and social responsiveness. Future work should examine EF emergence and consolidation, and RJA and later EF associations.

FIGURE 1

Ages at which participants completed various measures. (a) Each row represents a participant. Each data point is a visit, which may include multiple assessments (e.g., vrRSB and outcome MSEL collected at the same visit/age). (b) Age distributions for each measure. DJAA, Dimensional Joint Attention Assessment; MSEL, Mullen Scales of Early Learning; MEFS, Minnesota Executive Function Scale; vrRSB, Video‐Reference Rating of Reciprocal Social Behavior

FIGURE 2

A typical sequence of DJAA bids, all preceded by gaining an infant's visual attention. (a) First bid includes gaze and head turn. (b) Second bid includes gaze, head turn, and verbal cue. (c) Third cue includes gaze, head turn, and point. (d) Fourth bid includes gaze, head turn, point, and verbal cue. Sequence in administered from (a) to (d)

FIGURE 3

Dimensional Joint Attention Assessment (DJAA) score at 8–15 months is associated with later verbal abilities as measured by the MSEL (Mullen Scales of Early Learning). Y‐axis values are derived from fitted MSEL scores in a multilevel model controlling for sex, age at outcome assessment, maternal graduate education, and verbal ability at DJAA assessment and are utilized to better illustrate the DJAA‐MSEL association

FIGURE 4

Age‐conditioned Dimensional Joint Attention Assessment (DJAA) mean scores are associated with score on the Video‐Reference Rating of Reciprocal Social Behavior (vrRSB) at 16–31 months, after accounting for participant age, family income, and maternal graduate degree attainment

FIGURE 5

Family income is increasingly associated with Minnesota Executive Function Scales (MEFS) total score from 24 to 38 months