Intention or Attention Before Pointing: Do Infants’ Early Holdout Gestures Reflect Evidence of a Declarative Motive?

Gestures are the first signs of intentional communication within prelinguistic infants and can reflect various motives, including a declarative motive to share attention and interest. The ability to use gestures declaratively has been linked to later language development; therefore, it is important to understand the origins of this motive. Previous research has focused on the use of declarative pointing at around 12 months; however, other potential forms of declarative communication, such as holdout gestures, are yet to be studied in detail. The purpose of this study was to examine whether from 10 months, infants use holdouts declaratively. We elicited holdouts from 36 infants and then reacted to these gestures in four different conditions: (1) joint attention: shared interest; (2) infant attention: attended to infant; (3) toy attention: attended to toy; (4) ignore: gesture was not attended to. Infants’ behavioral responses were recorded. When the experimenter engaged in joint attention, infants were significantly more likely to display a positive attitude and produced fewer re‐engagement attempts. In contrast, the three non‐joint attention conditions displayed significantly higher negative attitudes and attempts to re‐engage the experimenter. We conclude that infants display declarative communication prior to 12 months, resetting the age at which these more complex skills emerge.     

The Ability to Map Differentially Stressed Labels to Objects Predicts Language Development at 24 months in 12‐month‐olds at High Risk for Autism

Sensitivity to language‐specific stress patterns during infancy facilitates finding, mapping, and recognizing words, and early preferences for the predominate stress pattern of the infant's native language have been argued to facilitate language relevant outcomes (Ference & Curtin, 2013 Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, 116, 891; Weber et al., 2005 Cognitive Brain Research, 25, 180). We examined 12‐month‐old infant siblings of typically developing children (SIBS‐TD) and infant siblings of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; SIBS‐A) on their ability to map differentially stressed labels to objects. We also examined whether success at this task relates to infants’ vocabulary size at 12 months, and more specifically to SIBS‐A's vocabulary at both 12 and 24 months. SIBS‐TD successfully mapped the word–object pairings, which related to their vocabulary comprehension at 12 months. In contrast, SIBS‐A as a group did not map the word–object pairings, which was unrelated to vocabulary size at 12 months. However, success on this task for SIBS‐A predicted expressive language abilities at 24 months using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL; Mullen, 1995 Mullen Scales of Early Learning. Circle Pines, MN: American Guidance) and the MacArthur‐Bates Communicative Development Inventory (MB‐CDI; Fenson et al., 1993 MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory: Users Guide and Technical Manual. San Diego, CA: Singular Publishing Company). Our study is the first to demonstrate that 12‐month‐old SIBS‐A who succeed at word mapping using lexical stress are more likely to have stronger expressive language abilities at 24 months.     

The Value of Vocalizing: 10‐Month‐Olds' Vocal Usage Relates to Language Outcomes at 15 Months

The interaction between infant's communicative competence and responsiveness of caregivers facilitates the transition from prelinguistic to linguistic communication. It is thus important to know how infants' communicative behavior changes in relation to different caregiver responses; furthermore, how infants' modification of communicative behavior relates to language outcomes. We investigated 39 10‐month‐old infants' communication as a function of mothers' attention and responses and the relationship to language outcomes at 15 months. We elicited infants' communicative behavior in three conditions: (1) joint attention: Mothers were visually attending and responding to infants' attention and interest; (2) available: Mothers were visually attending to infants, but not responding contingently to infants' attention and interest; (3) unavailable: Mothers were not attending to infants nor responding to them. Infants vocalized more when mothers attended and responded to them (conditions 1 and 2) than when mothers did not (condition 3), but infants' gesture and gesture‐vocal production did not differ across conditions. Furthermore, infants' production of a higher proportion of vocalizations in the unavailable condition relative to the joint attention condition correlated with, and predicted, infants' language scores at 15 months. Thus, infants who appear to be aware of the social effects of vocalizations may learn words better.     

Twelve‐Month‐Olds Understand Social Intentions Based on Prosody and Gesture Shape

Infants infer social and pragmatic intentions underlying attention‐directing gestures, but the basis on which infants make these inferences is not well understood. Previous studies suggest that infants rely on information from preceding shared action contexts and joint perceptual scenes. Here, we tested whether 12‐month‐olds use information from act‐accompanying cues, in particular prosody and hand shape, to guide their pragmatic understanding. In Experiment 1, caregivers directed infants’ attention to an object to request it, share interest in it, or inform them about a hidden aspect. Caregivers used distinct prosodic and gestural patterns to express each pragmatic intention. Experiment 2 was identical except that experimenters provided identical lexical information across conditions and used three sets of trained prosodic and gestural patterns. In all conditions, the joint perceptual scenes and preceding shared action contexts were identical. In both experiments, infants reacted appropriately to the adults’ intentions by attending to the object mostly in the sharing interest condition, offering the object mostly in the imperative condition, and searching for the referent mostly in the informing condition. Infants’ ability to comprehend pragmatic intentions based on prosody and gesture shape expands infants’ communicative understanding from common activities to novel situations for which shared background knowledge is missing.     

Development of Infant Pointing from 10 to 12 months: The Role of Relevant Caregiver Responsiveness

Infants’ pointing frequency is a predictor of their later language abilities. Yet, predictors of pointing frequency in the first year of life are not well understood. Study 1 explored what factors in infants and caregivers at 10 months would predict the pointing frequency of infants at 12 months (N = 35). Infant‐driven predictors were infants’ fine‐motor skills and point‐following abilities. Caregiver‐mediated predictors were caregivers’ pointing frequency and responsiveness toward infants’ pointing. Relevant caregiver responsiveness at 10 months predicted infants’ pointing frequency at 12 months, controlling for the other factors and infants’ prior pointing frequency. Study 2 explored whether child‐level factors influence caregivers’ responsiveness (N = 49). We examined the hand shape of infants’ pointing (whole‐hand versus index‐finger) and the presence of point‐accompanying vocalizations. Infants’ vocalization‐accompanied points were more likely to elicit relevant responses from caregivers, while hand shapes played a less pronounced role. Together, the findings reveal an early emerging mutual relationship between infant pointing and caregiver behavior such that certain characteristics of infant pointing predict caregivers’ responsiveness, and relevant responsiveness toward infants’ pointing predicts the increase in infants’ pointing frequencies.     

Walking Ability is Associated with Social Communication Skills in Infants at High Risk for Autism Spectrum Disorder

Achievement of early motor milestones in infancy affords new opportunities for social interaction and communication. Research has shown that both motor and social deficits are observed in infants who later develop autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study examined associations between motor and Social communication skills in 12‐month‐old infant siblings of children with ASD who are at heightened risk for developmental delays (N = 86) and low‐risk, typically developing infants (N = 113). Infants were classified into one of three groups based on their walking ability: walkers (walks independently), standers (stands independently), or prewalkers (does not yet stand or walk independently). Social communication and cognitive skills were assessed with two standardized assessments (Communication and Symbolic Behaviors Scales [CSBS] and Mullen Scales of Early Learning) and compared across the three walking groups. Results demonstrated that high‐risk walkers showed superior Social communication skills, but commensurate cognitive skills, compared to high‐risk prewalkers. In contrast, Social communication and cognitive skills were largely comparable for low‐risk infants, regardless of walking status. Findings suggest that for high‐risk infants, who are already vulnerable to developmental delays and ASD, independent walking may facilitate the emergence of Social communication abilities. Pivotal motor milestones may serve as useful indicators of Social communication delays and targets for intervention.     

Home Environment,But Not Socioeconomic Status,is Linked to Differences in Early Phonetic Perception Ability

Infants perceptually tune to the phonemes of their native languages in the first year of life, thereby losing the ability to discriminate non‐native phonemes. Infants who perceptually tune earlier have been shown to develop stronger language skills later in childhood. We hypothesized that socioeconomic disparities, which have been associated with differences in the quality and quantity of language in the home, would contribute to individual differences in phonetic discrimination. Seventy‐five infants were assessed on measures of phonetic discrimination at 9 months, on the quality of the home environment at 15 months, and on language abilities at both ages. Phonetic discrimination did not vary according to socioeconomic status (SES), but was significantly associated with the quality of the home environment. This association persisted when controlling for 9‐month expressive language abilities, rendering it less likely that infants with better expressive language skills were simply engendering higher quality home interactions. This suggests that infants from linguistically richer home environments may be more tuned to their native language and therefore less able to discriminate non‐native contrasts at 9 months relative to infants whose home environments are less responsive. These findings indicate that home language environments may be more critical than SES in contributing to early language perception, with possible implications for language development more broadly.     

A parent gesture intervention as a means to increase parent declarative pointing and child vocabulary

This study examined whether a brief parent gesture training resulted in a change in the communicative intent of pointing gestures used by parents of infants from age 10–12 months and whether specific types of points (declarative vs. imperative) were more or less likely to predict later child language skill at 18 months. Compared to parents who were randomized to the control group, parents in the intervention group produced significantly more declarative pointing gestures as a result of the intervention. Moreover, parents’ use of declarative points at 12 months was predictive of later child vocabulary comprehension at 18 months. These findings suggest that a short-term parent training can have important effects on the communicative intentions conveyed through gesture which predict vocabulary development.     

Quantity and Quality of Gestural Input: Caregivers’ Sensitivity Predicts Caregiver–Infant Bidirectional Communication Through Gestures

Children's use of pointing and symbolic gestures—early communication skills which predict later language—is influenced by frequency of adults’ gestures. However, we wonder whether, like language, the sensitivity of adult–child interactions is also important for encouraging child gesturing, rather than simply quantity of adult gestural input. Furthermore, children's use of gestures influences qualities of adult–child interaction, eliciting greater responsiveness and richer communication. Thus, we investigated the moderating role of nonparental caregiver sensitivity on the relationship between caregivers’ and infants’ use of pointing and symbolic gestures. We observed 10 infants (ages 6–19 months) over 8 months with a total of 24 student caregivers completing short‐term internships, recording adult and child use of pointing and symbolic gestures. We used longitudinal growth models to examine change in gesturing and moderating roles of caregiver sensitivity in the relations between caregiver and child gesturing behavior. Caregivers’ sensitivity moderated effects of caregivers’ symbolic gestures on infants’ pointing and symbolic gestures, and the effects of infants’ pointing and symbolic gesture frequency on caregivers’ gesture use. Thus, caregivers’ gestures are most effective in supporting child gestures when in the context of sensitive interactions. Sensitivity is central to supporting children's early communicative behaviors, including pointing and symbolic gestures.     

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.     

Eye‐Tracking as a Measure of Responsiveness to Joint Attention in Infants at Risk for Autism

Reduced responsiveness to joint attention (RJA), as assessed by the Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS), is predictive of both subsequent language difficulties and autism diagnosis. Eye‐tracking measurement of RJA is a promising prognostic tool because it is highly precise and standardized. However, the construct validity of eye‐tracking assessments of RJA has not been established. By comparing RJA an eye‐tracking paradigm to responsiveness to joint attention during the ESCS, the current study evaluated the construct validity of an eye‐tracking assessment of RJA for 18‐month‐old infant siblings of children with autism. Relations between measures of RJA and concurrent language skills and autistic symptomatology were assessed. Correlations between measures of ESCS RJA and eye‐tracking RJA were statistically significant, but few relations between either ESCS or eye‐tracking assessments of RJA and language or symptoms were observed. This study establishes the construct validity of eye‐tracking assessments of RJA.     

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

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.     

Social motivation predicts gaze following between 6 and 14 months

Infants vary in their ability to follow others’ gazes, but it is unclear how these individual differences emerge. We tested whether social motivation levels in early infancy predict later gaze following skills. We longitudinally tracked infants’ (N = 82) gazes and pupil dilation while they observed videos of a woman looking into the camera simulating eye contact (i.e., mutual gaze) and then gazing toward one of two objects, at 2, 4, 6, 8, and 14 months of age. To improve measurement validity, we used confirmatory factor analysis to combine multiple observed measures to index the underlying constructs of social motivation and gaze following. Infants’ social motivation—indexed by their speed of social orienting, duration of mutual gaze, and degree of pupil dilation during mutual gaze—was developmentally stable and positively predicted the development of gaze following—indexed by their proportion of time looking to the target object, first object look difference scores, and first face-to-object saccade difference scores—from 6 to 14 months of age. These findings suggest that infants’ social motivation likely plays a role in the development of gaze following and highlight the use of a multi-measure approach to improve measurement sensitivity and validity in infancy research.     

What drives the attentional bias for fearful faces? An eye‐tracking investigation of 7‐month‐old infants’ visual scanning patterns

Seven‐month‐old infants display a robust attentional bias for fearful faces; however, the mechanisms driving this bias remain unclear. The objective of the current study was to replicate the attentional bias for fearful faces and to investigate how infants’ online scanning patterns relate to this preference. Infants’ visual scanning patterns toward fearful and happy faces were captured using eye tracking in a paired‐preference task, specifically exploring if the fear preference is driven by increased attention to particular facial features. Infants allocated increased attention toward the fearful face compared to the happy face overall, thus successfully replicating the attentional bias, and greater attention toward the fearful eyes was associated with a greater magnitude of the fear preference. The current findings suggest that the fearful eyes are a salient facial feature in capturing infants’ attention toward the fearful face and that increased scanning of the fearful eyes may be one mechanism driving the overall fear preference. In addition, scanning patterns, and attention to critical features specifically, are highlighted as a strategy for examining the mechanisms underlying the development of emotion recognition abilities in infancy.     

Child,Caregiver, and Temperament Contributions to Infant Joint Attention

Little is known about variables that may contribute to individual differences in infant joint attention, or the coordination of visual attention with a social partner. Therefore, this study examined the contributions of caregiver behavior and temperament to infant joint attention development between 9 and 12 months. Data were collected from 57 infants using a caregiver–infant paradigm, an infant–tester paradigm, and a parent report of infant temperament. Nine‐month measures of caregiver scaffolding and infant initiating joint attention (IJA) with testers were significantly related to 12‐month infant IJA with testers. A temperament measure of positive emotional reactivity was related to 9‐month IJA, and a measure of negative emotional reactivity was related to 12‐month IJA. Temperament and caregiver scaffolding measures, however, were not associated with the development of infant responding to joint attention. These results further the understanding of the multiple processes that contribute to joint attention development in infancy, and support the hypothesis that initiating and responding measures tap different aspects of joint attention development.     

Maternal Attention‐Directing Strategies and Infant Focused Attention During Problem Solving

Forty‐nine mother‐infant dyads participated in the study. Mothers were observed during free play with their infants to assess their attention‐directing strategies. Infants were observed during the Bayley to assess their focused attention abilities. Assessments were made when infants were 10 and 18 months. Whereas consistently high levels of maintaining over time were modestly associated with better infant focused attention at 18 months, consistently high levels of redirecting were moderately associated with poorer infant focused attention at 18 months. Additionally, more focused attention was associated with higher Bayley scores at both ages. Although the direction of effects could not be determined, the findings suggest links between maternal attention‐directing strategies (maintaining and redirecting) during play and infant attentional abilities during problem solving.     

The Developmental Course of Habituation in Infancy and Preschool Outcome

A longitudinal sample of 226 infants were tested monthly on habituation and novelty preference tasks, augmented with simultaneous heart rate recording from 3 to 9 months of age. Infants were then administered the Bayley Scales of Infant Development II (BSID) and MacArthur Communicative Development Inventory (MCDI) at 12, 18, and 24 months. Prior findings regarding the decline in look duration with age were replicated. Age‐based factors were extracted from the monthly assessments, an early attention factor from 3 to 6 months and a late attention factor from 7 to 9 months. A novelty preference factor, which grouped recognition performance at 4 and 6 months of age, was also derived. The late attention factor correlated negatively with a factor score derived from the BSID mental index, and the novelty preference aggregate was correlated positively with a factor score derived from the MCDI production scores. Two clusters of infants were derived based on the developmental course of change from the early attention to late attention look duration aggregates: One cluster (n= 150) decreased strongly, and another (n= 50) increased. Infants belonging to these clusters subsequently differed on both the BSID and MCDI outcomes, with the former cluster showing distinct advantages that increased as the outcome assessments progressed from 12 to 24 months of age. This finding was bolstered by subsequent analyses of data from infants who completed all tests run from 3 to 9 months. The results of this study suggest that the developmental course of attention during infancy is an important clue to cognitive and language outcomes in early childhood.     

Becoming a Communicative Partner: Infant Contingent Responsiveness to Maternal Language and Gestures

Infant contingent responsiveness to maternal language and gestures was examined in 190 Mexican American, Dominican American, and African American infant–mother dyads when infants were 14 and 24 months. Dyads were video‐recorded during book‐sharing and play. Videos were coded for the timing of infants’ vocalizations and gestures and mothers’ referential language (i.e., statements that inform infants about objects and events in the world; e.g., “That's a big doggy!”), regulatory language (i.e., statements that regulate infants’ attention or actions; e.g., “Look at that”, “Put it down!”), and gestures. Infants of all three ethnicities responded within 3 sec of mothers’ language and gestures, increased their responsiveness over development, and displayed specificity in their responses: They vocalized and gestured following mothers’ referential language and gestures, but were less likely than chance to communicate following mothers’ regulatory language. At an individual level, responsive infants had responsive mothers.     

Individual Differences in Infants’ Joint Attention Behaviors With Mother and a New Social Partner

Relations between infant–mother attachment security at 15 months and infants’ (N = 206) joint attention behaviors (a) with an experimenter at 8 and 15 months, and (b) with their mothers at 15 months were investigated. No concurrent or longitudinal relations were observed between attachment security and infants’ tendency to respond to an experimenter’s bids for joint attention. Higher levels of initiating joint attention with an experimenter at 15 months were associated with insecure‐avoidant attachment. Insecure‐avoidant attachment was also associated with lower scores for initiating high‐level joint attention behaviors (pointing, showing, and giving) with the mother at age 15 months. The fact that security‐related differences in initiating joint attention with an experimenter were observed only once the attachment relationship was consolidated suggests that (a) attachment security may influence infants’ active engagement with new social partners, and (b) insecure‐avoidant infants may compensate for reduced social contact with the caregiver by initiating more interaction with other social partners.     

Attention to Maternal Multimodal Naming by 6‐ to 8‐Month‐Old Infants and Learning of Word–Object Relations

We examined whether mothers' use of temporal synchrony between spoken words and moving objects, and infants' attention to object naming, predict infants' learning of word–object relations. Following 5 min of free play, 24 mothers taught their 6‐ to 8‐month‐olds the names of 2 toy objects, Gow and Chi, during a 3‐min play episode. Infants were then tested for their word mapping. The videotaped episodes were coded for mothers' object naming and infants' attention to different naming types. Results indicated that mothers' use of temporal synchrony and infants' attention during play covaried with infants' word‐mapping ability. Specifically, infants who switched eye gaze from mother to object most frequently during naming learned the word–object relations. The findings suggest that maternal naming and infants' word‐mapping abilities are bidirectionally related. Variability in infants' attention to maternal multimodal naming explains the variability in early lexical‐mapping development.