Joint attention abilities in Brazilian preterm and full-term infants.

Joint attention abilities of preterm and full-term Brazilian infants were assessed at 12- and 18-months, age corrected for prematurity. Results showed that preterm infants displayed significantly lower levels of correct responses to others' bids for joint attention at both time-points, compared to full-term infants. Both groups improved their responding to joint attention from 12 to 18 months of age. Contrastingly, prematurity did not impact infants' initiating joint attention behaviors, which remained stable over time for both groups. Findings were discussed in terms of the specific mental processes involved in distinct behavioural dimensions of joint attention.