Joint attention of six-month-old Down syndrome and preterm infants: I. Attention to toys and mother.

Six-month-old infants with Down syndrome (n = 14) and mental and motor-age-matched high-risk preterm infants (n = 15) were studied with respect to their use of separate attentional processes under conditions with and without their mother's direct involvement in play. As predicted, compared to preterm infants, the infants with Down syndrome spent less time involved with toys and more time looking at their mothers whether or not their mothers were actively involved. Although both infant groups showed an increase in the amount of time spent attending to toys in the mother-involved condition compared to the independent condition, only the preterm infants examined a wider range of toys when interacting with their mothers. Also, the infants with Down syndrome showed fewer shifts of attention to a toy in response to their mother's attempts to redirect their attention and, unlike the preterm infants, did not show increased positive affect when interacting with their mothers compared to playing on their own.