What Is Joint Attention? Joint attention is when two people share their attention on the same object or activity and interact together. For example, stacking blocks, building a puzzle, playing with a ball, reading a book, blowing bubbles, etc.
Why is Joint Attention important? If you have ever talked to someone who was on the phone or watching TV, you know a person has to be paying attention to have a conversation. It is the same with children: when they share attention, they learn. When children are actively listening and looking at you or the object they will follow what you are saying and doing. It is important for developing communication, social, and cognitive skills.
How to encourage joint attention: Instead of pulling their attention to what you are doing, join them when they are playing with a toy and talk about the toy. To ensure they stay focused, hold their preferred toy/object up to your face so they are looking at you and the object at the same time. If they are moving their attention from one object to another, follow their lead and talk about what they are doing. Get animated to keep them focused.
Some examples: If they are playing with blocks, join them and talk about the size and colors and words like "on", "off", "fell" based on what you are doing. If they are looking at a squirrel outside, you could chime in and say: “Look, a squirrel!” “It’s climbing up the tree.”. While playing with the car, hold it close to your face to label while the child is looking at you, say words like "vroom vroom", "roll" and encourage taking turns.
The goal is to keep them engaged in what they are doing while you participate, rather than steering them toward what you want them to do.
Speech-Language Pathologist • Playdate Speech Therapy