Social-Communication Intervention for Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Effects on Initiating Joint Attention and Interactions with Mother

Abstract

From infancy, children who later receive a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) show impairments in eye gaze within both joint attention and requesting contexts and, most notably, when initiating interactions. These impairments correlate with later social, communication, and play development. To adequately address the social-communication impairments that characterize ASD, early intervention must address each of these areas. We examined a brief social-communication intervention teaching eye gaze in select social-communication contexts while examining generalization to initiating joint attention and interactions with participants’ mothers. Three toddlers with ASD participated in intervention involving prompting, prompt fading, and reinforcement. Two toddlers showed generalization from requesting to joint attention with the interventionist; all three showed generalization to interactions with their mothers in a semi-structured play interaction. Findings are discussed in terms of generalization and efficiency of intervention.