Eye contact and joint attention in the first year of life

Looking does not mean simply seeing. In the first year of life, the development of visual function proceeds in parallel with the maturation of motor, attentional, cognitive, and socio-communicative skills, progressively transforming gaze into a relational tool.

At birth, the visual system is still immature. The newborn is capable of perceiving light, contrasts, contours, and stimuli present in the visual field, but visual acuity, focusing ability, coordination of eye movements and integration of information coming from both eyes are still under development. In the following months, these functions mature rapidly, allowing the infant to transition from a vision mainly oriented toward nearby and high-contrast stimuli to a progressively more precise and organized visual mode.

In parallel, gaze acquires a social function. The human face becomes one of the stimuli toward which the infant early on directs attention and, through repeated exchanges with the caregiver, eye contact is progressively integrated into increasingly complex interactive sequences.

It is along this path that the development of joint attention takes place, namelythe ability to coordinate one’s attentional orientation with that of another person toward an object, an event, or an element of the environment. It is a skill that emerges during thefirst year and represents one of the steps through which visual perception becomes an integral part of preverbal communication.

A visual system still maturing

The infant’s visual system differs from that of the adult in the degree of maturation of a complex anatomical and functional network that includes the eye, retina, optic nerve, visual pathways, and cortical structures responsible for processing visual information.

At birth, some components of visual function are already operational, while others must complete their development through maturational processes that continue in the postnatal period. Visual acuity is initially reduced compared to that which will be achieved later; also the ability to maintain astable fixation, rapidly shift attention from one stimulus to another, and coordinate the movements of both eyes evolves progressively.

In the first months, the infant is particularly sensitive to high-contrast stimuli and to objects present at close range. This characteristic also takes on significance in the interaction with the caregiver, since the adult’s face, observed during caregiving and especially during feeding, is frequently located at a distance visually accessible to the newborn.

The maturation of visual function therefore does not occur in isolation, but also develops through daily experiences, which offer continuous opportunities to practice fixation, orientation, tracking, and stimulus discrimination.

 

Prenatal vision: what precedes eye contact

Speaking of eye contact before birth requires a terminological clarification. The fetus progressively develops the ability to receive and process light stimuli, but eye contact, understood as a reciprocal relational behavior between the child and another person, belongs to postnatal life.

During gestation, the ocular structures and neural pathways involved in visual function progressively mature. The ability to receive light stimuli represents one of the sensory experiences that accompany the maturation of the fetal nervous system.

It is therefore not correct to attribute to the prenatal period the social meaning that the term “eye contact” acquires after birth. Before birth, the anatomical and physiological foundations of visual function develop; subsequently, these skills are integrated into perceptual experience and into interaction with the environment and people.

 

From perception to eye contact

In the first weeks of life, visual behavior is characterized by a still limited ability to maintain a stable fixation for long periods and by a progressive maturation of oculomotor coordination.

The newborn can orient their gaze toward a face or a visually salient stimulus, but this does not mean that every episode of orientation already represents intentional eye contact, in the sense attributed to a more mature social behavior.

Over the course of the first months, the stability of fixation and the ability to visually follow objects and faces increase, while the gaze becomes progressively more organized and integrated into exchanges with adults.

This distinction is also particularly important from a clinical point of view. Seeing a face, fixating on it, maintaining gaze, alternating it between a person and an object, and following the direction of another person’s gaze are different skills, which mature through a gradual process.

 

The human face as a social stimulus

The human face represents a particularly relevant stimulus in the infant’s early visual experiences. During daily interactions, the caregiver’s face is associated with voice, bodily contact, feeding, emotional expressions, and variations in vocal tone.

This convergence of sensory information allows the child to repeatedly experience a relationship between what they observe and what happens during the interaction.

Furthermore, during the first months, visual attention does not necessarily remain focused on the same regions of the face. Studies on the development of visual attention show changes in the way the infant distributes gaze among the eyes, mouth, and other facial features, also in relation to the growing importance of linguistic and social information.

The gaze thus becomes part of a dynamic exchange, in which the child observes the adult’s face, momentarily shifts attention away, looks back at it, and, as attentional skills mature, begins to coordinate the observation of people with that of objects present in the environment.

 

From eye contact to gaze following

A subsequent step is represented by the ability to follow the direction of another person’s gaze, a skill that does not coincide with simple eye contact.

In eye contact, the child directs their attention toward the interlocutor’s face or eyes; in gaze following, on the other hand, they use the other person’s visual orientation as information to identify a potential target in the environment.

The capacity for gaze following, that is, following another person’s gaze, begins to emerge in the first months and becomes progressively more evident during the second half of the first year. Its expression, however, depends on the context, the characteristics of the stimulus, and the individual skills of the child.

This transition holds significant developmental value, as the child no longer simply observes what the adult is doing, but begins to use the visual behavior of the interlocutor to direct their own attention.

 

What is joint attention really?

Joint attention represents a more complex skill than simple eye contact. We speak of joint attention when two people coordinate their attentional focus toward the same object, event, or element in the environment.

In a typical situation, the child looks at the parent, follows the direction of their gaze, and subsequently directs their eyes toward a toy. In a more advanced stage, they can alternate their gaze between the toy and the parent, maintaining a form of coordination between themselves, the other person, and the observed object.

Scientific literature generally distinguishes two components: responding to joint attention and initiating joint attention.

The former consists of the child’s ability to respond to the other person’s cues, for example by following their gaze or a gesture directed at an object. The latter concerns the ability to spontaneously use communicative behaviors to direct the other person’s attention toward something.

These two components do not necessarily mature at the same time: responding to attentional cues from the other tends to appear first, while communicative initiative becomes more structured later on.

 

A finding from Italian research: gaze as part of relationship regulation

An Italian study published in 2022 by Tiziana Aureli, Fabio Presaghi, and Maria Concetta Garito longitudinally analyzed co-regulation in mother-child interactions, following dyads from 4 to 24 months.

The researchers considered, among other aspects, gaze alternation and shared meanings during interaction. The results support the idea that gaze does not merely represent a visual function, but progressively participates in reciprocal regulation processes between child and caregiver.

This result contributes to understanding why eye contact should be interpreted within the relationship and not as an isolated skill.

During the first months, the infant progressively develops the ability to direct their gaze toward the social partner, maintain attention, avert it, and then direct it back to the interlocutor. As attentional skills mature, gaze alternation can become part of more complex interactive sequences, in which child and adult mutually modulate their behavior.

This co-regulation precisely describes this process of mutual adaptation: each partner’s behavior influences the other’s and, over time, interactions become progressively more organized. Within this framework, gaze represents one of the channels through which the infant participates in the exchange even before the emergence of structured verbal communication.

The relationship between eye contact and bonding can be further understood by observing what happens during the first days and weeks of life. Bonding does not coincide with simple eye contact and cannot be reduced to a single behavior, but represents a broader relational process in which physical proximity, voice, touch, gaze, response to the newborn’s cues, and progressive mutual acquaintance come into play.

 

Main milestones in the first year

First 2 months: orientation and early fixation experiences

In the first few weeks, the visual system is still rapidly maturing. The infant can orient toward visually salient stimuli and show interest in the human face, especially in the close proximity conditions typical of daily interactions.

Fixation is still relatively brief, and the ability to stably maintain attention on a visual target has yet to consolidate. At this stage, it is not appropriate to interpret every variation in eye contact as an isolated indicator of social development, as visual behavior must be observed as a whole and in relation to the child’s overall maturation.

2–4 months: greater gaze stability

Between the second and fourth month of life, the ability to fixate on and follow stimuli becomes progressively more efficient. The infant shows greater participation in face-to-face exchanges and can sustain attention longer on the adult’s face.

The growing ability to direct and maintain visual attention contributes to making interactions more prolonged and predictable, favoring the consolidation of early relational skills.

4–6 months: integration of vision, movement, and interaction

With the maturation of oculomotor control and attentional organization, the child broadens their visual exploration. Objects, faces, and movements in the environment become increasingly differentiated targets of interest.

At this stage, the relationship between visual attention and social interaction becomes more articulated. The child can observe an object, look back at the caregiver, and modify their behavior based on the adult’s response.

Literature suggests that relevant components of joint attention behaviors emerge as early as the second half of the first year, although their organization and developmental meaning continue to mature later on.

6–9 months: the other person’s gaze becomes a guide

Between the second half of the first year and subsequent months, the ability to follow the direction of the adult’s gaze becomes progressively more evident.

The child can begin to orient toward an object the parent is observing and better coordinate their attention with that of the social partner.

This period represents a particularly significant transition, as attention is no longer solely dyadic, i.e., centered on the child-adult relationship, but can begin to organize around a triadic structure: child–adult–object.

9–12 months: toward more mature forms of joint attention

In the final quarter of the first year, gaze-following generally becomes more efficient, and the child can show a growing ability to coordinate their visual attention with that of the adult.

A particularly significant behavior is gaze alternation: the child observes an object, looks at the caregiver, and then looks back at the object. This sequence constitutes a more advanced form of attentional coordination compared to simple orientation toward a stimulus.

Towards the end of the first year, behaviors may also appear in which the child uses gaze and other non-verbal signals to share an experience with the adult. The ability to independently initiate complex episodes of joint attention, however, continues to develop into the second year of life.

 

Eye contact and language development

The development of gaze is closely linked to the maturation of communicative skills.

When both adult and child orient their attention toward the same object, a particularly favorable context is created to link what is observed with the words heard. Indeed, the adult’s gaze can narrow the scope of possible interpretations and help the child identify the referent of a word.

Numerous studies have found associations between gaze following skills and joint attention in the first year of life and subsequent language abilities. This does not mean that eye contact directly determines language development, but that the ability to coordinate attention and social information contributes to creating favorable conditions for language learning.

Gaze therefore represents one of the channels through which the child begins to organize the relationship between person, object, event, and word, laying the groundwork for progressively more articulated forms of communication.

 

A gaze that becomes a relationship

During the first year of life, visual function undergoes an important process of maturation: from an initially limited ability to perceive and orient toward stimuli, a progressively more precise, selective exploration mode integrated with behavior develops.

Eye contact represents one of the first elements of this transformation. Subsequently, the gaze of the other can become a point of reference to direct attention, which is progressively coordinated toward a common object and used to share experiences.

In this sense, the transition from vision to eye contact and from eye contact to joint attention does not represent a simple sequence of isolated skills, but the expression of the progressive integration between visual system, oculomotor control, attention, brain development, and social communication.

At the end of the first year, the child does not simply observe their surroundings, but is learning to use gaze to navigate the environment and, above all, to coordinate their experience with that of the other.

It is precisely this progressive ability to share an experience through gaze that lays the foundation for subsequent skills, including language learning, intentional communication, and the development of social cognition.