RESEARCH ARTICLE Joint visual attention and locomotor experience: A longitudinal study of infants with treated idiopathic clubfoot Julia Dillmann 1 | Gloria Gehb 1 | Christian‐Dominik Peterlein 2 | Gudrun Schwarzer 1 1 Department of Developmental Psychology, Justus‐Liebig‐University, Gießen, Germany 2 Center for Orthopaedics and Trauma Surgery, University Hospital Giessen and Marburg, Marburg, Germany Correspondence Julia Dillmann, Department of Developmental Psychology, Justus‐Liebig‐University, Otto‐ Behaghel‐Str. 10F, 35394 Gießen, Germany. Email: julia.dillmann@psychol.uni‐giessen.de Funding information Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, Grant/ Award Number: SFB/TRR 135/1 2014; German Research Foundation, Grant/Award Number: SFB/TRR 135/1 2014 Abstract The aim of this study was to examine the link between joint attention skills and locomotor experiences in infants with locomotor delay due to congenital idiopathic clubfoot com- pared to typically developing infants. Using a following of point and gaze gesture task, we repeatedly tested joint attention skills of 11 infants with congenital idiopathic club- foot and 14 typically developing infants at the ages of 6, 9, and 12 months. Additionally, we tested all typically develop- ing infants and eight infants treated for idiopathic clubfoot at onset of crawling on hand and knees and after they had been crawling for about 5 to 6 weeks. Our results confirmed a delayed onset of locomotion in infants treated for idio- pathic clubfoot; however, our results did not indicate lower joint attention performances in those infants in general. Moreover, we found a positive effect of crawling on the development of joint attention skills in typically developing infants; however, not in infants treated for idiopathic club- foot. Our results complement previous work by indicating that locomotor experience, especially crawling is an impor- tant, however not necessary agent for developing joint attention skills. Highlights • We repeatedly tested the link between crawling experi- ence and joint attention skills in typically developing and infants with locomotor delay due to congenital idiopathic clubfoot. Received: 10 October 2017 Revised: 16 October 2018 Accepted: 19 October 2018 DOI: 10.1002/icd.2118 Inf Child Dev. 2018;e2118. https://doi.org/10.1002/icd.2118 © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/icd 1 of 15