The identification of infant predictors of childhood cognitive and behavioral outcomes is an important topic for basic and applied developmental psychology. The description of predictors is critical to the early identification of children """"""""at risk"""""""" for developmental and behavioral disorders and to the optimal targeting of primary and secondary interventions for these children. Furthermore, evidence of continuity between infant and childhood abilities provides information that is fundamental to research and theories on the nature of human psychological development. Therefore, a priority has been placed on research that not only identifies new methods of infant assessments that will contribute to the predictive validity of infant assessment batteries but also examines the constitutional and environmental- caregiving mechanisms that may contribute to continuity between infant and childhood development. In this regard, though, insufficient attention has been paid to the potential importance of individual differences in joint attention skill development as infant predictors of outcome, either in research on infant predictors or in research on joint attention. This despite research and theory that suggests that infant joint attention skills reflect aspects of social-cognitive, as well as social- emotional competence and self-regulatory, capacities that may be expected to relate to both behavioral and cognitive outcomes in childhood. The proposed longitudinal study has been designed to address this important hypothesis, as well as to examine the degree to which the continuity between infant joint attention and childhood outcomes reflect caregiver and infant constitutional factors. One hundred twenty infants will be followed longitudinally, at four-month intervals, from 6 to 36 months of age. The data provided by this study may be expected to: a) improve early screening and diagnosis in infancy, b)advances the understanding of the integrated nature of social emotional and cognitive development in infancy and early childhood, and c) advance the understanding of the joint attention disturbance that plays a fundamental role in autism, as well as other forms of developmental disorders.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development (NICHD)
Type
Research Project (R01)
Project #
5R01HD038052-05
Application #
6641088
Study Section
Human Development and Aging Subcommittee 3 (HUD)
Program Officer
Kau, Alice S
Project Start
1999-08-01
Project End
2005-07-31
Budget Start
2003-08-01
Budget End
2005-07-31
Support Year
5
Fiscal Year
2003
Total Cost
$201,003
Indirect Cost
Name
University of Miami Coral Gables
Department
Psychology
Type
Schools of Arts and Sciences
DUNS #
625174149
City
Coral Gables
State
FL
Country
United States
Zip Code
33146
Vaughan Van Hecke, Amy; Mundy, Peter; Block, Jessica J et al. (2012) Infant responding to joint attention, executive processes, and self-regulation in preschool children. Infant Behav Dev 35:303-11
Mundy, Peter; Jarrold, William (2010) Infant joint attention, neural networks and social cognition. Neural Netw 23:985-97
Mundy, Peter; Gwaltney, Mary; Henderson, Heather (2010) Self-referenced processing, neurodevelopment and joint attention in autism. Autism 14:408-29
Mundy, Peter; Sullivan, Lisa; Mastergeorge, Ann M (2009) A parallel and distributed-processing model of joint attention, social cognition and autism. Autism Res 2:2-21
Parlade, Meaghan Venezia; Messinger, Daniel S; Delgado, Christine E F et al. (2009) Anticipatory smiling: linking early affective communication and social outcome. Infant Behav Dev 32:33-43
Vaughan Van Hecke, Amy; Mundy, Peter C; Acra, C Francoise et al. (2007) Infant joint attention, temperament, and social competence in preschool children. Child Dev 78:53-69
Mundy, Peter; Block, Jessica; Delgado, Christine et al. (2007) Individual differences and the development of joint attention in infancy. Child Dev 78:938-54
Mundy, Peter; Newell, Lisa (2007) Attention, Joint Attention, and Social Cognition. Curr Dir Psychol Sci 16:269-274
Mundy, Peter (2003) Annotation: the neural basis of social impairments in autism: the role of the dorsal medial-frontal cortex and anterior cingulate system. J Child Psychol Psychiatry 44:793-809