Joint Attention JOINT ATIENTION AS A SYSTEM PROPERTY OF THE INFANT-CAREGIVER

The development of visual joint attention has been examined almost exclusively from the point of view of the infant's capacity. Researchers have focused on issues such as its developmental origins and timing, its implications for the development of social cogni-tion, and the possible mechanisms for the changing patterns of joint attention. However, this approach does not reveal how this skill emerges from the infant's interaction with the caregiver. In this paper, joint attention is viewed as an interaction state achieved by the infant and the caregiver system. The development of this state is described first as led by the caregiver monitoring the attention of the infant and overcoming the spatial constraints. As the infant becomes able to control his posture and to respond to caregiv-er's attention getting bids, caregiver begins to introduce objects and their manipulations, thus extending the frame of joint attention. With the emergence of language and narra-tives, the 'window ' of joint attention opens to include events beyond the here and now. The interaction system gradually overcomes the temporal constraints. The last stage of development sees the infant actively taking over the role of the caregiver by initiating attention getting. A full-fledge joint attention is characterized by the dyad's having over-come both the spatial and the temporal constraints