An Intervention Study on Children's Healthy Joint Attention Skills Based on a Mixed Instructional Approach of DTT and PRT
Mixing DTT drills with PRT play lifts eye gaze, pointing, and showing in autistic preschoolers within days.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Liu and team mixed two ABA styles in one lesson. They used short, clear trials (DTT) and child-led play (PRT).
Two preschoolers with autism joined. The adults taught three joint-attention moves: eye gaze, following a point, and showing toys.
The study used a multiple-baseline design. Each skill started training at a different time to show the teaching caused the jump.
What they found
Both children quickly looked at the adult’s eyes more. They also followed finger points and held up toys to share.
The gains showed up right after training began and stayed high. Mixing DTT and PRT in one package worked fast.
How this fits with other research
Lowe et al. (1995) got similar gains, but they let classmates give the PRT. Liu kept the adult in charge and added DTT drills.
Kourassanis-Velasquez et al. (2019) extended the idea by training peers with video models. Liu’s study leaves peers out, so you could stack both methods: teach the child first, then let peers run PRT later.
Pérez-Fuster et al. (2022) also used a multiple-baseline design and saw joint-attention growth. They swapped the adult for an augmented-reality screen. Same outcome, different tool — pick the one your clinic can run.
Why it matters
You can run this blended lesson tomorrow. Start with one joint-attention skill, use quick DTT trials, then bounce into child-led PRT play. Track eye gaze, pointing, and showing. If the data climb, you just added a low-cost, high-impact block to your session plan.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Joint attention is an important element that influences children's early development of communication and sociality, and joint attention is more often than not the earliest incipient of their prosocial behavior. Joint attention skills are one of the core deficits of children with autism, and identifying and remediating the core problems of autism is a popular area of interest, with joint attention being the focus of attention. The aim of this study was to investigate whether the combined orientation model of Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT) and Pivotal Response Training (PRT) could improve the joint attention skills of children with autism. This study used a cross-behavioral multitest design in a single-subject study with two preschool children with autism as subjects, with the independent variable being joint attention teaching and the dependent variable being the three joint attention skills (eye gaze, following directions, and active display). After the instructional intervention, children with autism showed a significant increase in the correctness of “eye alternation,” “following directions,” and “moving displays.”
Journal of Healthcare Engineering, 2022 · doi:10.1155/2022/5987582