Children with autism's response to novel stimuli while participating in interventions targeting joint attention or symbolic play skills.
Joint-attention training spreads to new toys better than play-only training.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team ran a randomized trial with preschoolers who have autism. Half got joint-attention lessons. The other half got symbolic-play lessons.
After training, each child saw brand-new toys. Staff watched who looked at the toy and then back at the adult. They counted these "shared looks" to see if the skill carried over.
What they found
Kids who received joint-attention training gave more shared looks to the new toys. The play-only group did not show this jump.
The result tells us joint-attention lessons transfer. Children used the skill with items they had never seen before.
How this fits with other research
Lawton et al. (2012) ran a similar trial five years later. They also saw lasting gains, but they added a follow-up period. Their data confirm the 2007 effect and show it can last for months.
Naoi et al. (2008) took the idea further. They used the child’s favorite toys during training. Their single-case study showed even faster gains in initiating joint attention.
Bottema-Beutel (2016) pooled many studies and found that responding to joint attention links tightly to later language. The 2007 result sits inside that bigger picture: teach JA now, boost language later.
Why it matters
You can add brief joint-attention trials to any preschool session. Use a new toy at the end to check if the child shares the moment with you. If shared looks rise, you know the skill is moving beyond your teaching set. This quick probe saves time and shows parents real-time progress.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Thirty-five children diagnosed with autism were randomly assigned to either a joint attention or a symbolic play intervention. During the 5-8 week treatment, three novel probes were administered to determine mastery of joint attention skills. The probes consisted of auditory and visual stimuli, such as a loud spider crawling or a musical ball bouncing. The current study examined affect, gaze, joint attention behaviors, and verbalizations at three different time points of intervention. Results revealed that children randomized to the joint attention group were more likely to acknowledge the probe and engage in shared interactions between intervener and probe upon termination of intervention. Additionally, the joint attention group improved in the proportion of time spent sharing coordinated joint looks between intervener and probe. These results suggest that generalization of joint attention skills to a novel probe did occur for the group targeting joint attention and provides further evidence of the effectiveness of the joint attention intervention.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2007 · doi:10.1177/1362361307083255