In our previous blogspot, we discussed joint attention, We described joint attention as shared focus between two individuals. It could be between a caregiver and a child or a parent and their child. Joint attention is effective, especially when teaching children new words or how to communicate
We also discussed some important benefits of joint attention. Today I want to show you how to help your child build joint attention and some examples of joint attention.
Techniques for building joint attention
● Be face-to-face when interacting; you can make it easier for your child to join in focus with you if you are at the same physical level and facing each other. In this way, your child is able to look at you and catch your attention when interesting things happen.
● Follow your child’s lead to discover what’s caught their attention—if you carefully listen to and observe your child, you will learn about their interest in the moment. Then, you can join in with your child’s interest and focus on and communicate about the same thing.
● Point out interesting things in everyday life—as unusual or interesting things happen during the day, get down to your child’s level, look at your child, then look at the interesting event and say something about it. Then look back at your child and wait. This will give your child a chance to join attention with you and notice what you’re looking at. Anything unusual or interesting provides a great time to work on joint attention—it could be a broken toy, squirrels chasing each other, a funny picture in a book, etc.
● Do something unexpected and wait—you can set up situations where your child may want to draw your attention to something by placing objects in unusual places (e.g., a crayon in the toothbrush holder), doing something silly (e.g., pretending to put on your child’s shoe instead of your own), or making mistakes happen on purpose (e.g., handing your child a fork to eat their yogurt instead of a spoon). After you set up a situation, wait for your child to react. Make sure you are face-to-face so your child can look back and forth between you and the interesting object/situation and do something to get your attention. Your child might point, make a sound, or say a word.
Examples Of Joint Attention Activities.
● Reading books.
● Engaging in pretend play.
● Playing social games like peek-a-boo, Simon says.
● Playing puzzles.
● playing musical instruments.
● Making arts and crafts.
● Taking nature walks.
● Modeling gestures with song like itsy bitsy spider
