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Children with autism's response to novel stimuli while participating in interventions targeting joint attention or symbolic play skills

University of California, Los Angeles, USA

Connie Kasari

University of California, Los Angeles, USA, kasari{at}gseis.ucla.edu

Stephanny Freeman

University of California, Los Angeles, USA

Tanya Paparella

University of California, Los Angeles, USA

Thirty-five children diagnosed with autism were randomly assigned to either a joint attention or a symbolic play intervention. During the 5—8 week treatment, three novel probes were administered to determine mastery of joint attention skills. The probes consisted of auditory and visual stimuli, such as a loud spider crawling or a musical ball bouncing. The current study examined affect, gaze, joint attention behaviors, and verbalizations at three different time points of intervention. Results revealed that children randomized to the joint attention group were more likely to acknowledge the probe and engage in shared interactions between intervener and probe upon termination of intervention. Additionally, the joint attention group improved in the proportion of time spent sharing coordinated joint looks between intervener and probe. These results suggest that generalization of joint attention skills to a novel probe did occur for the group targeting joint attention and provides further evidence of the effectiveness of the joint attention intervention.

Key Words: autism • generalization • intervention • joint attention

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Autism, Vol. 11, No. 6, 535-546 (2007)
DOI: 10.1177/1362361307083255


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This Article Abstract Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Google Scholar Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Gulsrud, A. C. Articles by Paparella, T. Search for Related Content PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Gulsrud, A. C. Articles by Paparella, T. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?