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Coordinated attention, declarative and imperative pointing in infants with and without Down syndrome: Sharing experiences with adults and peers

York University, Canada, legerste{at}yorku.ca

Tamara Fisher

York University, Canada

The link between coordinated attention, imperative and declarative pointing was assessed in a longitudinal study. Four groups of infants were studied in interaction with their mothers, a same-aged peer and the peer's mother. Two groups of infants had Down syndrome (DS), one (n = 11) with a mean mental age (MA) of 0;8.6 and the other (n = 11) with an MA of 1;4.5. These infants were matched on MA with two groups (n = 10 each) of typically developing (TD) infants. The following hypotheses were confirmed: (a) that infants with DS produce less coordinated attention and declaratives than typically developing infants, but a comparable number of imperatives; (b) that coordinated attention predicts declarative but not imperative pointing; and (c) that coordinated attention, imperative and declarative pointing should be higher with adults than with peers. Discussion centers on the implications of these findings for theories of early communication development and mental state awareness.

Key Words: Down syndrome • joint attention • nonverbal development • parent-infant interaction • pointing • preverbal communication

First Language, Vol. 28, No. 3, 281-311 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/0142723708091045


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