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Social-Communication Intervention for Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Eye Gaze in the Context of Requesting and Joint Attention

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Abstract

Beginning in infancy, before a diagnosis is made, children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show significant impairments in the foundation for social-communication interactions including eye gaze in the contexts of both requesting and joint attention (JA). Addressing these early impairments as early as possible in toddlers who receive the diagnosis of ASD provides them with a foundational social-communication repertoire necessary for learning. In this study we examined the effects of a social-communication intervention involving prompting and reinforcement to teach gaze shift (GS; shifting gaze from an object to the interventionist’s eyes) in the context of responding to a request and initiating JA to four toddlers with ASD. Intervention lasted 3–9 weeks with all toddlers demonstrating GS to mastery across both contexts. Toddlers also showed generalization to a repertoire of social-communication behavior, including initiating requests and increases in smiling. Some improvements in symptoms of ASD and overall functioning were observed. Results suggest a promising brief intervention to address the earliest form of social communication that remains a part of successful social-communication interactions throughout life.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the toddlers and their families for their participation in this study. We thank Sadia Humayra, BA, Lauren Kryzak, PhD, BCBA-D, Petra Bartosiewicz, MA, MS, Mariam Chohan, MS, and Katarzyna Motylewicz, BS, BCBA, for their assistance with this study and Sunny Days, Inc., Arelis Cuevas, MS, OTR/L, Barbara Langlois, MS, and Victoria Lorenzo-Kuznik, MA, CCC-SLP, for assistance with recruitment. We are also grateful to the dissertation committee for their review and comments on this manuscript. This study was supported by The Graduate Center of City University of New York dissertation fellowship awarded to the first author. This study was conducted in partial fulfillment of the PhD program in Learning Processes and Behavior Analysis by the first author.

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  1. The Graduate Center of City University of New York, 365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10016, USA

    Ivana Krstovska-Guerrero & Emily A. Jones

  2. Queens College, City University of New York, 6530 Kissena Blvd, Queens, NY, 11367, USA

    Ivana Krstovska-Guerrero & Emily A. Jones

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  1. Ivana Krstovska-Guerrero
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Correspondence to Ivana Krstovska-Guerrero.

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All procedures performed in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

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Krstovska-Guerrero, I., Jones, E.A. Social-Communication Intervention for Toddlers with Autism Spectrum Disorder: Eye Gaze in the Context of Requesting and Joint Attention. J Dev Phys Disabil 28, 289–316 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10882-015-9466-9

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