Ways To Increase Joint Attention When Practicing Speech At Home

January 15, 2021 Stephanie Keffer

What is joint attention?

When you give your attention to the same thing as your child, this is referred to as joint attention.

Joint attention is a critical skill because your child is most ready to learn from you when they are paying attention to you or something that you are doing together. Joint attention can be achieved in almost any activity — if your child is playing with a spoon and banging on pots and pans, you can grab a spoon and bang it on the pots and pans next to them. As you sit on the floor playing together, you both are paying joint attention to spoon banging. You might also join your child in opening and closing the kitchen cabinets or dragging their favorite toy along the fence.

You may feel silly or uncomfortable engaging in this kind of play at first — most parents do, and that’s okay. Commit to practicing this skill a few times a day, and have fun following your child’s lead.

Tips for supporting joint attention skills in toddlers

Tip 1 - Join your child in play and describe what they are doing

The first step in building joint attention is joining your child in play. Every child has their own favorite activities. To practice joint attention, you should join your child in the activities they love the most. Joint attention can be achieved when you purposefully shift your attention to what your child is paying attention to.

Your child may enjoy banging objects together, playing with cars, or tearing up paper. If you sit down with your child and tear up paper together, joint attention has been established. As simple as it sounds, just moving near your child and engaging with the same items as them at the same time is enough to achieve joint attention. If they do not allow you to actually participate in the activity at first, just sit down next to them and observe their play.

When you work on achieving joint attention with your child, always remember to talk out loud about what is happening. Even though there is no expectation for your child to begin talking today, this is a great opportunity to provide examples of things they can say when they are ready and to help teach them the meaning of new words to grow their understanding. Instead of asking questions about your child’s activities, describe their actions out loud just like a sports commentator would.

Tip 2 - Copy what your child is doing in play

The next step in building joint attention is copying what your child is doing in play. Now that you have some practice joining your child in activities that they enjoy, begin imitating their actions. As your child plays, they get to become the “leader” of the activity. If you are playing together with pots and pans and your child starts banging a spoon on them, you do the same!

At this stage, we do not expect children to take turns or be excited to share, so grab your own pot and spoon and copy your child as you sit right next to them. As they move to begin another action—like banging the spoon on the floor instead, or dropping something inside a pot to hear a loud bang—you do the same. You can continue that imitation until they move on to trying another action.

By imitating your child, you are encouraging them to pay attention to you, and they may find it very fun to see you engage in their kind of play. In reversing the roles by imitating your child, you are also showing them that imitation is fun! If your child thinks that copying what another person is doing is fun, they are more likely to do it. Learning to imitate is important because children learn most new skills, including talking, by imitating what other people are doing.

Tip 3 - Encourage Your Child to Join You

As the last step of building joint attention, we will encourage your child to join you in play. Sometimes, getting your child to follow your lead can feel like a real challenge. Start off with things that you know your child is interested in or likes. If your child is sitting and playing with toys by themselves, you might get out bubbles and say “Wow! Look at these bubbles.” If your child leaves their toys and comes over to see the bubbles, they have joined you and established joint attention.

Your goal is to find an activity that your child enjoys and encourage them to shift their attention from something else to the activity that you are doing. Even if your child cannot move around the room independently, they might shift their gaze from their activity to yours; this too is an example of your child responding to your invitation for joint attention. The importance of joint attention cannot be overstated — it is the foundation for learning, imitation, and two-way communication.

Joint attention at home practice guide - 3 fun speech therapy activities ↓

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Joint Attention Activity For Toddlers

Peek-a-boo

Materials:

3-5 items that you can place on each other’s head to hide. This may include:

Towel
Blanket
Hats (too big hats are perfect)
Something a little bit see through like a thin scarf or knitted blanket with holes
Something that makes noise like a baby toy with crinkly in it, or wrapping paper or party streamers
Cardboard box
You can also have a few stuffed animals or toys available

Set-up:

You and your child will be on the floor, ideally sitting across from each other. Have these items available where only you can reach them (behind you or in your lap or in a container).

What to do:

Begin by playing traditional peek-a-boo with just your hands. Your child may or may not imitate you doing this action with your hands. Once they’re engaged and having fun, expand the game by using one of these items you have on hand.

What to say:

As you begin to expand this play, change the way you’re playing just slightly. Go from hiding your face behind your hands, to hiding your face behind a towel. Or to hiding your head under a hat. The basic premise of the game is the same but you are changing to logistics just a little.

We want to see if your child continues to remain engaged with you while you change the game slightly. Use simple language such as:

Peek-a-boo
Boo
Where are you???
I see you
I’m gonna get you
Oh no, where’s _____?
Hiiiiii _________

Continue the game for as long as your child remains engaged. You can keep hiding yourself under different items, hiding your child under different items. You can let them pull items off their own head and off of your head. You can also hide toys or stuffed animals in a similar fashion. You can also hide different body parts, such as feet, arms or bellies.

Each adjustment you make to the game is another opportunity to expand the play, extend it for another few seconds or minutes, and another opportunity for your child to remain engaged with you. The focus is on staying connected in a single play activity with your child, even if you change it up slightly, it’s still peek-a-boo. Have fun, and don’t be afraid to be silly!

Joint attention at home practice guide - 3 fun speech therapy activities (this activity + 2 more!) ↓