Mind & behavior · 2017
Do babies who spend more time making eye contact with a parent at 5 months have better attention control at 11 months?
Yes, an association was found in a study of 55 infants. Babies who spent more time in mutual eye contact with a parent during free play at 5 months were better able to shift their attention away from something at 11 months than babies who spent less time doing so. This does not show that eye contact caused the improvement.
Details
Researchers followed infants from 5 to 11 months to investigate whether early parent–infant eye contact was linked to later attention skills. They measured the total time parents and babies looked at each other during free play at 5 months. At both ages, babies also completed a task that assessed their ability to shift visual attention.
More time in mutual eye contact at 5 months predicted better ability to disengage attention at 11 months. The finding concerns a specific aspect of attention control—shifting attention away from something—not every aspect of cognitive development. Because this was an observational study, it cannot establish that increasing eye contact would improve a baby's later attention skills.
What do you think?
Good conversations begin with curiosity.
You can read comments without an account. Sign in to write.
Loading comments…