Why is joint attention so important? Responding to joint attention is when your child follows your lead and attempts at the same thing as you do. For example, if you say, look and point to a ball, your child should look in the direction you're pointing. This is how your child demonstrates joint attention. Joint attention allows your child to learn from others and to share enjoyment with others. Initiating joint attention is your child's ability to use their gaze, gestures, pointing, sounds and words to draw your attention to an object or event. Your child will look at the object of interest and then back at you to learn and share enjoyment. An example is when your child looks up to the sky and points to an airplane and then looks back at you and back to the airplane passing by. If your child looks at you to share enjoyment or to see if you are watching them, this is called social referencing. Joint attention is an important milestone for social development as your child is showing interest in not only objects but people and their reactions. Children with autism spectrum disorder are delayed in displaying joint attention. At two months of age, infants display joint attention by taking turns exchanging looks, noises and mouth movements. At six months, children look in the same direction as others and follow your gaze. At eight months, infants demonstrate pointing. At nine months, infants demonstrate gestures and social referencing. Your one-year-old child will point intentionally to show interest. Back 12 to 14 months, your child will start to direct your attention by pointing and then look back at you.