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Stability of joint attention skills in children with autism
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STABILITY OF JOINT ATTENTION SKILLS IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM Cynthia D. Littleford, Marian Sigman, and Donna W. Liau Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024-9972 Deficits in nonverbal gestural joint attention have been well documented in samples of young autistic children. Gestural joint attention skills involve the child’s use and understanding of conventional gestures such as pointing to objects and showing objects to other people. These skills are typically accompanied by eye contact, or gaze is alternated between an object and person to coordinate attention between interactive partners. While studies have shown that autistic children are less likely to initiate joint attention or respond to bids for joint attention than mental age matched normal and developmentally delayed children, few studies have examined joint attention skills in older samples of children or the development of these skills over time. This project was designed to examine the individual stability of joint attention and requesting skills in autistic children. A large longitudinal follow-up of autistic, non-autistic developmentally delayed (DD), and Down syndrome children was conducted to assess current nonverbal communication skills. The autistic sample comprised 37 children (mean CA = 148 months, mean LA = 50 months) who were originally tested between the ages of 3-6 years. Control groups consisted of a language-matched non-autistic DD sample of 24 children (mean CA = 115 months, mean LA = 53 months) and a language-matched Down syndrome sample of 61 children (mean CA = 125 months, mean LA = 42 months). The follow-up was conducted an average of 8-9 years after the original study. The Early Social-Communication Scales (Seibert, Hogan, & Mundy, 1982) were used to assess nonverbal communication skills at intake and a revised version was used at follow-up. The revised ESCS was developed to assess joint attention and requesting skills in older children using age-appropriate materials and format. Both the ESCS and the revised version consist of items involving situations and objects presented to elicit the initiation of joint attention, the response to bids for joint attention, and acts to elicit requesting. The ESCS and revised version were videotaped and rated by trained observers, demonstrated good reliability, and two mutually exclusive categories were derived. In addition to the nonverbal communication measures, standardized assessments of intelligence and expressive/receptive language were administered to all children both at time 1 and time 2. To examine the stability of joint attention and requesting behaviors over time, the scores from time 1 were correlated with the scores from time 2. For the autistic sample, only the frequency of initiating joint attention remained stable over time (r = .57, p c .OOl). However, significant correlations were found for measures of joint attention and gestural requesting. Both early measures of responding to bids for joint attention @= .41, Q c .03) and requesting & = .50, Q < ,005) were significantly predictive of later initiating joint attention. Early gestural requesting was also significantly related to later responding to joint attention @= .44, p c: .016). No significant correlations were found for the DD and Down syndrome groups. Results from this longitudinal study suggest that deficits in joint attention skills are not only unique to children with autism but appear to be stable over a period of 8-9 years. The pattern of these data suggest that examining the nature of gestural joint attention and requesting skills may be especially important with respect to understanding autistic developmental psychopathology and the social -communicative impediments among these children,
STABILITY OF JOINT ATTENTION SKILLS IN CHILDREN WITH AUTISM Cynthia D. Littleford, Marian Sigman, and Donna W. Liau Department of Psychology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90024-9972 Deficits in nonverbal gestural joint attention have been well documented in samples of young autistic children. Gestural joint attention skills involve the child’s use and understanding of conventional gestures such as pointing to objects and showing objects to other people. These skills are typically accompanied by eye contact, or gaze is alternated between an object and person to coordinate attention between interactive partners. While studies have shown that autistic children are less likely to initiate joint attention or respond to bids for joint attention than mental age matched normal and developmentally delayed children, few studies have examined joint attention skills in older samples of children or the development of these skills over time. This project was designed to examine the individual stability of joint attention and requesting skills in autistic children. A large longitudinal follow-up of autistic, non-autistic developmentally delayed (DD), and Down syndrome children was conducted to assess current nonverbal communication skills. The autistic sample comprised 37 children (mean CA = 148 months, mean LA = 50 months) who were originally tested between the ages of 3-6 years. Control groups consisted of a language-matched non-autistic DD sample of 24 children (mean CA = 115 months, mean LA = 53 months) and a language-matched Down syndrome sample of 61 children (mean CA = 125 months, mean LA = 42 months). The follow-up was conducted an average of 8-9 years after the original study. The Early Social-Communication Scales (Seibert, Hogan, & Mundy, 1982) were used to assess nonverbal communication skills at intake and a revised version was used at follow-up. The revised ESCS was developed to assess joint attention and requesting skills in older children using age-appropriate materials and format. Both the ESCS and the revised version consist of items involving situations and objects presented to elicit the initiation of joint attention, the response to bids for joint attention, and acts to elicit requesting. The ESCS and revised version were videotaped and rated by trained observers, demonstrated good reliability, and two mutually exclusive categories were derived. In addition to the nonverbal communication measures, standardized assessments of intelligence and expressive/receptive language were administered to all children both at time 1 and time 2. To examine the stability of joint attention and requesting behaviors over time, the scores from time 1 were correlated with the scores from time 2. For the autistic sample, only the frequency of initiating joint attention remained stable over time (r = .57, p c .OOl). However, significant correlations were found for measures of joint attention and gestural requesting. Both early measures of responding to bids for joint attention @= .41, Q c .03) and requesting & = .50, Q < ,005) were significantly predictive of later initiating joint attention. Early gestural requesting was also significantly related to later responding to joint attention @= .44, p c: .016). No significant correlations were found for the DD and Down syndrome groups. Results from this longitudinal study suggest that deficits in joint attention skills are not only unique to children with autism but appear to be stable over a period of 8-9 years. The pattern of these data suggest that examining the nature of gestural joint attention and requesting skills may be especially important with respect to understanding autistic developmental psychopathology and the social -communicative impediments among these children,