What are you looking at? Chances are, whatever someone else is. As humans, one of our developmental milestones includes gaze behavior, or learning to direct our attention toward something another individual is looking at. Unlike reflexes present at birth — like the grasp reflex — gaze following is something we learn by paying attention to our surroundings. A recent study at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Washington’s Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences shows that some of us might be paying a little more attention than others.

According to the study, deaf infants with exposure to American Sign Language have an easier time following an adult’s gaze than their hearing peers. Not only did deaf infants excel at following an adult’s gaze to a specific object, they were also more likely to look back to the adult for more information, or “check back.”

Researchers suggest that being raised by parents fluent in ASL gives deaf infants added experience in picking up and looking for visual cues, providing them with opportunities for visual learning that support advances in their maturation. Prior studies have indicated that an infant’s capability to follow an individual’s gaze occurs on a strict developmental timeline, but this study on deaf infants of deaf parents demonstrates that there just might be a little wiggle room.

The fact that this infant behavior can be so influenced by an experience reminds us of infants’ instinct to communicate with those in their surroundings and the myriad of ways in which they learn to do it.

Teach your kids it’s rude to stare, but remember — for babies, it just might be their way of showing you they’re paying attention.