Abstract
There is agreement in the recent literature on the finding that children with autism show a rather severe deficit in the development of gestural communication along with impaired joint-attention skills (cf. Abrahamsen & Mitchell, 1990; BaronCohen, 1989; Curcio, 1978; Mundy, Sigman, & Kasari, 1994; Mundy, Sigman, Ungerer, & Sherman, 1986; Sigman, Mundy, Ungerer, & Sherman, 1986; Wetherby & Prutting, 1984). Several investigators have observed that autistic children seem quite able to formulate requests for objects, actions, and social routines and to persist until their goal is satisfied. To make these nonverbal requests they use mainly contact gestures, for example, leading a person by the hand toward a desired object/place or putting the adult's hand on a toy they want to activate. Less frequently they make requests for objects or actions via distal gestures, such as pointing, showing, offering/giving, and ritualized requests.3 In one of the first
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