Association of turn-taking functions with joint attention in toddlers with autism.
Social turn-taking, not just any turn-taking, predicts later joint attention growth in toddlers with autism.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team watched toddlers with autism play with a parent. They coded every turn the child took. Turns were split into two kinds: social (back-and-forth with people) and nonsocial (switching toys or staring).
They tracked the kids again months later to see who had grown in joint attention skills. The goal was to learn which kind of turn-taking forecast later sharing looks and pointing.
What they found
Only social turn-taking predicted later joint attention. Kids who traded smiles, sounds, or toys with a person made bigger JA gains.
Nonsocial turns—like swapping blocks alone—added no forecast power. Social turns acted like an early stepping stone to shared looking and showing.
How this fits with other research
Lee et al. (2020) first showed that overall turn-taking and joint attention move together. The new study sharpens that picture: the link is driven only by social turns.
Lawton et al. (2012) proved joint attention can be taught in preschoolers. Their programs used adult-child play, exactly the spot where social turn-taking lives. The 2022 result hints you should embed social turn exchanges in those lessons.
Freeman et al. (2015) followed children for five years and found early joint attention forecast later friendships. Social turn-taking may be the earliest lever—strengthen it at two and you may boost both JA at four and friendships at eight.
Why it matters
When you run play sessions, shape social turns first. Pause, wait, and reinforce eye contact, babble back, or give-and-take with a toy. Skip drills that only swap objects; they don’t feed joint attention. A quick pivot to person-to-person turn games can set the stage for sharing looks, pointing, and later language.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Back-and-forth interaction, or turn taking, may support later joint attention, a more complex form of interaction, when promoted in interventions for young children with autism, especially depending on the child's intent when interacting. In the present study, we observed videos of 20 toddlers with autism engaging in turn taking with their caregivers during an intervention designed to support children's joint attention. We sought to identify when the children displayed turn taking socially and when they were using it for nonsocial purposes in the intervention videos. We also observed videos after the intervention was complete to identify when children used joint attention when interacting with their caregivers. After these observations, we used these video data to explore the relationship of social turn taking to joint attention, and the relationship of nonsocial turn taking to joint attention. We found a significant relationship between social turn taking and joint attention, but not between nonsocial turn taking and joint attention. These findings support the importance of considering social turn taking in interactions between young children with autism and their caregivers.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2022 · doi:10.1177/13623613211039945