Paparella Tanya, Goods Kelly Stickles, Freeman Stephanny, Kasari Connie
University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles, USA.
J Commun Disord. 2011 Nov-Dec;44(6):569-83. doi: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2011.08.002. Epub 2011 Aug 22.
Joint attention (JA) skills are deficient in children with autism; however, children with autism seem to vary in the degree to which they display joint attention. Joint attention skills refer to verbal and nonverbal skills used to share experiences with others. They include gestures such as pointing, coordinated looks between objects and people, and showing. Some nonverbal gestures are used to request rather than merely to share. These requesting gestures include reaching, pointing to request, and giving to gain assistance. Although these skills also relate to expressive language development, we know little about when they emerge and how they change as language develops in children with autism. Several studies report the emergence of nonverbal requests in children with autism to be similar to that of typically developing children, but other studies report impairments in such skills. This study investigates the emergence of nonverbal JA and requesting skills in typically developing children and in children with autism with expressive language ages between 12 and 60 months, using both a both cross-sectional and a longitudinal design. Results suggest that the sequence of JA skill emergence in autism differs from a normative model, while the sequence of requesting skills emerges in accord with typical development. Furthermore, several joint attention skills appeared to emerge later than in typical children. With regards to intervention it appears that a curriculum based on a normative developmental model for the emergence of requesting skills is mostly appropriate for use with children with autism. However, since children with autism acquired nonverbal joint attention skills in a sequence that differed from a normative model, it might be that a non-normative autism-specific joint attention curriculum would be more likely to benefit children with autism.
The reader will (1) identify 3 specific initiating gestures used to communicate for the purpose of joint attention, (2) identify 2 specific nonverbal responsive joint attention skills, (3) be able to state that children with autism appear to develop specific nonverbal requesting gestures in a similar sequence to typically developing children, (4) be able to state that children with autism appear to develop specific nonverbal joint attention gestures in a different sequence than that of typically developing children, and (5) be able to identify 2 specific nonverbal joint attention skills that appear significantly impaired in children with autism relative to typically developing children.
自闭症儿童存在共同注意（JA）技能缺陷；然而，自闭症儿童在展示共同注意的程度上似乎存在差异。共同注意技能是指用于与他人分享体验的言语和非言语技能。它们包括诸如指物等手势、物体与人之间的协调眼神以及展示行为。一些非言语手势用于请求而非仅仅用于分享。这些请求性手势包括伸手、指向以请求以及给予以获得帮助。尽管这些技能也与表达性语言发展相关，但我们对它们何时出现以及随着自闭症儿童语言发展如何变化知之甚少。几项研究报告称自闭症儿童非言语请求的出现与正常发育儿童相似，但其他研究报告了这些技能存在缺陷。本研究采用横断面和纵向设计，调查了12至60个月表达性语言年龄的正常发育儿童和自闭症儿童非言语共同注意和请求技能的出现情况。结果表明，自闭症中共同注意技能出现的顺序与规范模型不同，而请求技能出现的顺序与正常发育一致。此外，一些共同注意技能似乎比正常儿童出现得晚。关于干预，基于请求技能出现的规范发展模型的课程似乎最适合自闭症儿童使用。然而，由于自闭症儿童以与规范模型不同的顺序获得非言语共同注意技能，可能特定于自闭症的非规范共同注意课程更有可能使自闭症儿童受益。
读者将能够（1）识别用于共同注意目的进行交流的3种特定起始手势，（2）识别2种特定的非言语反应性共同注意技能，（3）能够指出自闭症儿童似乎以与正常发育儿童相似的顺序发展特定的非言语请求手势，（4）能够指出自闭症儿童似乎以与正常发育儿童不同的顺序发展特定的非言语共同注意手势，以及（5）能够识别相对于正常发育儿童，自闭症儿童中明显受损的2种特定非言语共同注意技能。
