Joint Attention In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder:A Parent-mediated Intervention Model

Joint attention(JA)is the capacity for two people to share attention to interesting objects or events,which includes responding to joint attention(RJA)and initiating joint attention(IJA).Joint attention is crucial for children' social development and language learning,and it is also associated with the development of theory of mind,play,and imitation.Children with autism spectrum disorders(ASD)are characterized by serious deficits in social communication and social interaction,and research has indicated that it is related to autistic children' joint attention defects.Therefore,joint attention plays a vitally important role in the early intervention of autistic children.Parents,as the primary caregivers of children with ASD,play the significant role in the intervention.Studies have shown that parent-mediation intervention is an economical and effective intervention model.Therefore,in the present study,we attempted to use parent-mediated intervention to train joint attention of children with autism.Studies have shown that the parents' involvement,parents' competence and the expectations of their children affect the rehabilitation of children with autism.In order to examine the impact of parental aspects on children with autism,we used Parental Self-Efficacy Questionnaire for Disabled Children,Parental Stress Index/Short form,and Autism Rehabilitation Assessment to evaluate the primary caregivers of 105 autistic children before the intervention study.We found that the rehabilitation of children with autism is correlated with parental self-efficacy and parenting stress.In the intervention study,we selected 3 children with autism and their parents,using a single subject of cross subjects multiple-baseline experimental design.Parents were trained to increase both initiative and responsive joint attention of their children.The subjects' joint attention was measured every week during the entire intervention.In addition,we collected the data from observation and interview at different stages of intervention.We used visual analysis and C statistics quantitative analysis,combined with the observation and the interview methods to analyze the intervention effects.After a 10-week/a two-stage intervention,we found both responding to joint attention and initiating joint attention behaviors were effectively increased.Difference between responding to joint attention and initiating joint attention was found and discussed,as well as the difference between high-level initiating joint attention and low-level joint attention.Finally,we provided some suggestions for future research,and draw the following conclusions:(1)That parental self-efficacy was able to predict the rehabilitation of children with autism,and parenting stress could mediate between parents' self-efficacy and rehabilitation of children with autism.(2)The parent-mediated intervention has positive effect on improving autism children' joint attention,but there is individual difference in the intervention effect.