S. Novotny
,
Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL
D. C. Coman
,
Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL
P. S. Schoultz
,
Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL
A. Gutierrez
,
Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL
M. Alessandri
,
Psychology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL
K. Hume
,
University of North Carolina, Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
L. Sperry
,
Center for Collaborative Educational Leadership, University of Colorado Denver, Denver, CO
B. Boyd
,
Psychology, University of North Carolina, Chapell Hill, NC
S. Odom
,
FPG Child Development Institute, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Background:
One of the hallmark impairments in social-communication in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is a deficit in joint attention. Joint attention (JA) refers to a set of behaviors, such as showing or pointing, used to include a social partner into an experience involving an object or event. Prior research suggests that JA is an integral part of language development because it facilitates the process of word-object mapping (Morales, Mundy, Delgado, Yale, Messinger, Neal, & Schwartz 2000). Due to their low levels of JA, children with ASD develop at slower rates than their typically developing peers. In order to increase their developmental rates of learning to the level of their typically developing peers, these rates need to be improved through intervention-based programs. Alessandri, Bomba, Holmes, Van Driesen, and Holmes (2002) found that early intervention through structured behaviorally based learning programs can significantly increase a child’s cognitive, social, language/communication, and motor developmental rates of learning. Objectives: The goal of the current study was to assess the association between joint attention skills, language development rates, and autism severity. Specifically, this study investigated two levels of JA, both initiating joint attention and responding to joint attention, as predictors of developmental rates during treatment and autism severity. Methods: Participants included 22 preschool-aged (M = 46.59 months, SD = 6.56) children with a confirmed diagnosis of ASD. Joint attention skills were measured at the beginning of the school year with the Early Social Communication Scales (ESCS; Mundy, Hogan & Doehring, 1986). The Mullen Scales of Early Learning (MSEL; Mullen, 1995) and the Preschool Language Scale, 4th edition (PLS-4; Zimmerman, Steiner & Pond, 2002) measures were administered at the beginning and the end of the school year to assess functioning across several developmental domains. Developmental rate was calculated by dividing the difference in MSEL and PLS age equivalent scores (from the beginning of the year and the end of the year) by the difference in chronological age from pre to post-treatment. Autism severity was measured by the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS; Lord, Rutter, DiLavore, & Risi, 1999). Results: Results of a Pearson R correlation showed that RJA was positively correlated with Total Language Score developmental rate on the PLS (r = .504, p = .017). RJA was also negatively correlated with autism severity (r = -.611, p = .001). Conclusions:
Results indicated significant associations between JA skills, language developmental rates, and autism severity. Though directionality cannot be determined, these results suggest that higher abilities in responding to JA may increase rates of language development during treatment and children may also appear less symptomatic. Further research should examine a possible causal relationship between autism severity, joint attention and developmental change during treatment. Determining which factors influence a child’s development during treatment may be important to creating programs that target the developmental gap between children with ASD and their typically developing peers.
