Increasing responding to others' joint attention directives using circumscribed interests

J Appl Behav Anal. 2013 Fall;46(3):674-9. doi: 10.1002/jaba.73.

Abstract

Children with autism show significant deficits in joint attention (JA), which occurs when 2 people engage in verbalizations, gestures, or eye contact with each other and a common object. Children with autism also exhibit intense interests in specific topics (i.e., circumscribed interests; CI). This study investigated the effectiveness of teaching responding to JA directives (RJA) to 3 children with autism while engaged in CI activities. RJA increased during intervention and generalized from CI to preferred activities.

Keywords: autism; circumscribed interests; joint attention.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / etiology*
  • Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity / rehabilitation*
  • Autistic Disorder / complications*
  • Behavior Therapy / methods*
  • Child, Preschool
  • Communication
  • Generalization, Psychological
  • Humans
  • Interpersonal Relations*
  • Male