The Effects of Joint Attention Intervention n Toddlers with Autism
Date Issued
2009
Date
2009
Author(s)
Li, Su-Chen
Abstract
Objective: The study aimed to explore the effects of joint attention intervention， using discrete trial (DT) method in toddlers and preschool children with autism. Methods : two toddler and two preschool children were recruited for intervention initiating and responding to joint attention using discrete trial (DT) method. The study used single subject multiple baseline design across participants. The intervention effects were evaluated by three measurements, including the percentage of correct response after DT, the Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS), and the unstructured joint attention assessment at baseline, immediately after intervention, and maintenance stages. Results: the results showed that intervention effects for both Responding to Joint Attention (RJA) and Initiating Joint Attention (IJA) were observed in both toddlers and preschool children. The more the relatedness between the generalized target and measurements, the greater the generalization effect was. That is, the greatest effect was found for percentage of correct response after DT when person was changed, followed by ESCS when situation and stimuli were partly changed, and the unstructured joint attention assessment which had the smallest effect when situation and stimuli were totally changed. The results also revealed that different intervention effects on maintenance stage under different situations, in which the effect at maintenance stage was significant under similar situation, while the effects at intervention and maintenance stages were not significant under unstructured joint attention assessment. Conclusions: the findings in the present study were consistent with those in the other studies that using both discrete trial only and discrete trial plus the Pivotal Responding Training which have significant intervention effects on IJA and RJA in children with autism. However, the intervention effect was smaller on IJA than that on RJA. Along with the finding discussed above, further investigation was also recommended.
Subjects
joint attention
autism
intervention
toddler
discrete trial
single subject design
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