The Intervention Of DTT Combined With PRT On The Joint Attention Of The Young Children With Autism

Joint-attention is an essential element of early communication and social development for infants and young children.Joint-attention deficit is common in children with autism during early childhood.Joint-attention is one of the core deficits of autism,and is related to the development of other abilities,such as language,social interaction,play and imitation.In the current early intervention studies,it is a hot field to identify and treat the core problems of autism,and Joint-attention is the focus of attention.At present,there are many researches on the Joint-attention of autism at home and abroad.These research results confirm that teaching can improve the joint-attention behavior of autism.However,due to the limited number of such studies,especially in China,the related intervention studies are relatively few.Moreover,the research on teaching in natural environment is limited.Therefore,this study is to intervene the joint-attention of the autism in the natural situation of the school,in order to improve the joint-attention of the subjects.The purpose of this study was to explore whether the combination of Discrete Trial Teaching(DTT)and Pivotal Response Training(PRT)could improve the joint-attention ability of autistic children.In this study,two preschool children with autism were selected as subjects,and the independent variables were joint-attention teaching,the dependent variables were three joint-attention behaviors(gazing alternately,following a point,and showing.).The teaching experiment was carried out in the natural environment of the school for 10 weeks,including baseline period,intervention period and maintenance period;quantitative analysis and visual analysis obtained from dependent variables were used to evaluate intervention effect,and establish social validity based on parents’ feedback.The study showed good process reliabilities and social validity.The findings were summarized below:1.The combination of DTT and PRT teaching had effects on increasing some joint attention behaviors of young children with autism.After teaching intervention,the correct rate of “Gazing alternately”,“Following a point” and “Showing” behavior of autistic children increased significantly.2.The combination of DTT and PRT teaching had effects on maintaining the joint-attention behaviors of the young children with autism.After the withdrawal of intervention,the effects of “Gazing alternately”,“Following a point” and “Showing”behavior were maintained.3.The social validity of DTT combined with PRT teaching in improving the collective attention ability of autistic children.The researchers put forward suggestions for future teaching and research,including incorporating joint-attention into the content of the early treatment program,selecting appropriate target behaviors for the study subjects,and testing double-level teaching separately for the experiment of double-level teaching,level of teaching and its respective effectiveness.