Becoming a gaze user: Joint attention and cooperation in one- and two-year-olds

The goal of the current research was to investigate the potential relationship between joint attention and cooperation. Sixty-six children at 14-30 months engaged in a cooperative activity with an adult partner, who stopped participating at a specific point during the tasks. We explored whether children would continue the cooperative action when the cooperative activity was interrupted, and how they would initiate it. In addition, their joint attention abilities were assessed with Early Social Communication Scales. Results showed that children´s successful cooperation with adults increased with age, and was predicted by Initiative Joint Attention (IJA). In addition, gaze alternation predicted infants´ reengagement behavior during the interruption. However, no significant relations were found between Responding to Joint Attention (RJA) and cooperation. The research suggests a complex relationship between joint attention and coordinated activity when considering RJA and IJA separately.