Understanding Your Baby's Listening & Attention Development in the First Year

The Importance of Baby Listening Skills Development

A baby's attention skills are a crucial part of their development - but what can we expect from our babes in the first two years of life? There are times we all wish our babies would listen more, especially once they enter 'toddlerhood'. It's important to know what to expect when it comes to the development of attention skills, what to look out for, and why they are so important for the development of communication and social skills! Understanding baby listening skills development is fundamental to supporting their growth.

What to Expect: Milestones in Baby Listening Skills Development (0-1 Years)

In these early months, your baby's attention will be very limited - it takes a lot of energy for them to focus on one thing for very long! As your baby develops, they might start to be able to focus on an object/person that they're interested in for a bit longer. Your baby will be easily distracted by something new (e.g., a noise or something that catches their eye!). It's very common and normal for your baby to flit from one object/activity to the next.

Joint attention (this one is super important for communication and social development related to baby listening skills development) will start to develop around 9 months of age - more on this below!

Progressing Baby Listening Skills Development: The 1-2 Year Mark

As your baby grows, you'll observe significant changes in their attention span and focus, contributing to their overall listening skills development:

• Your baby might be able to focus on an activity of their own choosing for a bit longer now.

• They can start to block out external stimuli in order to focus (hello 'selective hearing' 😂).

• Joint attention skills will be well developed by 18 months of age, further solidifying their listening skills development

Understanding Joint Attention: A Cornerstone of Baby Listening Skills Development

So what is 'joint attention'? Joint attention is when two people focus on the same object or person, for the purpose of socially interacting with each other. It involves your baby being able to shift their eye gaze between you and the object/person in order to share their attention with you and communicate about what is happening. It is a very important early social skill and a key indicator of developing baby listening skills development. It's about sharing experiences with others and sharing emotions too. If you're both looking at a wonderful toy, you're both experiencing joy when watching it. You will mirror your baby's delight as they look to you and back to the toy again.

Communication is all about socialisation - we communicate with others to connect in order to get our needs met or share experiences. Your baby has been developing their attention skills since birth. Joint attention starts to develop when you both look together at the same thing (e.g., both looking at the same toy in play but not necessarily shifting their gaze back and forth between the toy and you). Like with all your baby's movement, communication and play skills, there are lots of very simple things you can do to support your baby right from birth in their listening skills development. 

Joint attention develops in two ways, both critical for baby listening skill development:

• Responding to a request for Joint Attention: This is when someone gets your child's attention to look at something (e.g., in play, a parent might say 'look at the car!' and will point, and your child will follow their gaze and point to the car). This type of joint attention develops first.

• Initiating Joint Attention: This is when your child initiates the social interaction by getting your attention to show you something. They'll do this by pointing and looking at you too, to urge you to look too! Or they might add in some vocalisations (and words too when they're ready) to get your attention, demonstrating advanced baby listening skill development.

The Crucial Link: How are Attention Skills and Communication Skills connected?

If you read our previous blog on speech sound development, you'll remember I talked about the 'communication development pyramid' which is a great visual to explain what skills come first in the development of communication. Whereas 'speech sounds' are at the top of the pyramid and last to develop, attention skills are the base/foundation of the pyramid. They are vital in order for the rest of the pyramid to grow. If there are cracks in this area of development - there won't be a strong foundation for the other 'bricks' of the pyramid to stay strong! This foundation is built on robust listening skills development.

It makes sense - in order to be able to understand the words being said to you, first you need to be listening to that word. This is why it is so beneficial to follow a baby's lead in play as when they are interested in the play, they will be paying better attention to the objects and to the words you are modelling too! This active engagement directly boosts their listening skills development.