Joint attention happens when you and your child pay attention to the same thing and let each other know you are sharing that moment.
You do this by:
- Looking at each other.
- Pointing to the item.
- Saying something about the thing you are both looking at.
For example, a child sees a shiny star and then looks at his Mum excitedly to check to see if she is also looking at the star. If his Mum is not looking at the star the child might look towards her, point to the star and/or make a noise. This child is doing this to try and get joint attention.
Joint attention is a really important skill that helps children develop communication skills.
Through joint attention, children learn:
- How to share their interests with others.
- The enjoyment that comes from having back-and-forth interactions.
- To listen to what the adult says that matches what they can see.
Autistic children can find it hard to pay attention to both an object and a person while interacting. Because of this, they can end up spending a lot of their time playing with toys on their own, without people.
This means that they are missing valuable opportunities to interact and communicate.
The amount of time young children spend playing together with their parent predicts their early communication development
By helping your child develop joint attention you are
- Showing your child it is fun to play together and share interests with others.
- Sowing the seed for other communication skills to develop.
