Signer: Dr. S. Jordan Wright 

Eye-gaze is fundamental to support deaf/hard-of-hearing children’s optimal development. Just seven hours after birth, infants take a remarkable interest in their mothers’ faces and can imitate their caregivers’ facial expressions. This early period and the development of synchronous eye-gaze with a caregiver has been shown to be important for attachment, as well as providing infants with the ability to regulate stimulation and join in turn-taking.

By four to five months of age, the infant develops an interest in objects and this early ability to coordinate eye-gaze with adults leads to joint communication between a caregiver, the infant, and an object. The ability to obtain and regulate eye contact, or eye-gaze, is crucial for numerous developmental milestones in communication and language.

The focus is on looking to learn and learning to look, which we are framing, as the critical skill of eye-gaze. It is important to provide support and strategies to families, caregivers, and support specialists working in developed and developing countries on how to develop visual attention with infants.

The importance of eye-gaze and how caregivers can support developmental scaffolding of joint attention, language development, and the transmission of cultural knowledge are discussed.