Toddlers' preference for social scenes and its relation to later social-communicative skills

Early preference for social scenes is considered a foundational precursor to social-communicative development, yet little is known about how this preference changes across toddlerhood and whether its development is related to later outcomes. This study examined the developmental changes of preference for social scenes across individuals and its longitudinal predictive effects on toddler development. A total of 61 toddlers were assessed at 12, 18, and 24 months of age. Preference for social scenes was measured at 12 and 18 months using a preferential looking paradigm, in which toddlers' spontaneous visual attention to social versus non-social stimuli was recorded using an eye tracker. General developmental outcomes were assessed at 18 and 24 months using the Ages and Stages Questionnaire-Third Edition (ASQ-3). Three key findings emerged: (1) Preference for social scenes increased over time only among toddlers who showed relatively low social preference at 12 months, revealing different developmental changes across individuals; (2) Toddlers with higher social preferential looking at 12 months demonstrated better developmental outcomes at 24 months; (3) Greater intra-individual increases in social preferential looking from 12 to 18 months were associated with more advanced development from 18 to 24 months, especially in the social and communication domains. These findings reveal that early social preferential looking follows different developmental change patterns and that intra-individual change-rather than static measurement alone-is a meaningful predictor of social-communicative development, highlighting the value of longitudinal assessment in infancy research.