Enhancing Social Initiations Using Naturalistic Behavioral Intervention: Outcomes from a Randomized Controlled Trial for Children with Autism.
Autistic toddlers miss everyday speech cues and rarely share sounds—catch this early and teach parents to respond.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers watched toddlers play at home with a parent.
They compared kids with autism, kids with general delays, and typically developing kids.
The team counted how often each child looked up when hearing speech and shared new sounds.
What they found
Toddlers with autism rarely turned toward their name or shared sounds.
They showed far fewer of these social bids than both other groups.
The gap was large and easy to see during everyday play.
How this fits with other research
Schertz et al. (2018) ran a parent-training trial and saw joint-attention gains in the same age group.
Their positive result clashes with the large deficits found here.
The difference is method: H taught parents mediated-learning tactics, while W simply watched untaught play.
Pilgrim et al. (2000) used parent interviews and also found early social gaps, so the new study extends that old report with live observation.
Pfadt (1991) showed autistic toddlers did not prefer their mother’s speech; W confirms the same kids ignore speech in natural play.
Why it matters
The study gives you a fast baseline probe: call the child’s name and present a novel sound during play.
If orienting and sharing are weak, start parent-mediated joint-attention training right away.
Use the same home setup for quick progress checks every two weeks.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study documents the early adverse effects of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) on auditory joint engagement-the sharing of sounds during interactions. A total of 141 toddlers (49 typically developing [TD], 46 with ASD, and 46 with non-ASD developmental disorders [DD]; average age 22.6 months) were observed during a semi-naturalistic play session with a parent. Reactions to four types of sounds-speech about the child, instrumental music, animal calls, and mechanical noises-were observed before and as parents tried to scaffold joint engagement with the sound. Toddlers with ASD usually appeared aware of a new sound, often alerting to and orienting toward it. But compared to TD toddlers and toddlers with DD, they alerted and oriented less often to speech, a difference not found with the other sounds. Furthermore, toddlers with ASD were far less likely to spontaneously try to share the sound with the parents and to engage with the parent and the sound when parents tried to share it with them. These findings reveal how ASD can have significant effects on shared experiences with nonvisible targets in the environment that attract toddlers' attention. Future studies should address the association between auditory joint engagement difficulties and variations in multimodal joint engagement, sensory profiles, and ASD severity and the reciprocal influence over time of auditory joint engagement experience and language development. LAY SUMMARY: Like most toddlers, toddlers with autism spectrum disorder often alert when they hear sounds like a cat's meow or a train's rumble. But they are less likely to alert when they hear their own name, and they are far less likely to share new sounds with their parents. These findings raise important questions about how toddlers with autism spectrum disorder experience their everyday auditory world, including how they share it with parents who can enrich this experience.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2021 · doi:10.1007/s10803-012-1467-2