Postcards From My Mind: Perspectives of Asperger's Syndrome

(1) Shared Attention/Joint Attention

Shared or joint attention means two people attend to the same object/thing and both are aware that the other is attending, too. For example, when you point to an object to show a friend and say, “look over there” the friend knows: a) what you are pointing to, b) that you see the object also and, c) some idea of why you are pointing out the object). Shared or Joint attention is an innate, meaning the skill comes naturally and you don’t need to learn it. The absence of joint attention can sometimes be seen as lack of pointing or gesturing and lack of a social smile.

 

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