INFANT JOINT ATTENTION AND DEVELOPMENTAL OUTCOMES

确定儿童认知和行为结局的预测因素是基础和应用发展心理学的一个重要课题。预测因子的描述对于早期识别有发育和行为障碍“风险”的儿童以及针对这些儿童的初级和二级干预的最佳目标至关重要。此外，婴儿和儿童能力之间连续性的证据为人类心理发展本质的研究和理论提供了基础信息。因此，优先考虑的研究不仅要确定新的婴儿评估方法，这将有助于婴儿评估电池的预测有效性，而且要检查可能有助于婴儿和儿童发展之间连续性的宪法和环境照顾机制。然而，在这方面，无论是对婴儿预测因素的研究还是对联合注意的研究，都没有充分注意到联合注意技能发展的个体差异作为婴儿结果预测因素的潜在重要性。尽管研究和理论表明，婴儿的共同注意技能反映了社会认知、社会情感能力和自我调节能力的各个方面，这些能力可能与儿童时期的行为和认知结果有关。提出的纵向研究旨在解决这一重要的假设，以及检查婴儿共同注意和儿童结果之间的连续性反映照顾者和婴儿体质因素的程度。120名婴儿将被纵向跟踪，每隔4个月，从6个月到36个月。本研究提供的数据有望：a)改善婴儿期的早期筛查和诊断，b)促进对婴儿期和幼儿期社会情感和认知发展的综合性质的理解，以及c)促进对在自闭症以及其他形式的发育障碍中起根本作用的联合注意力障碍的理解。

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.