Joint and social attention behaviours in ASD children attending a “IAES” developmental intervention

Background: Joint attention and social attention deficits are specific to Autism Spectrum Disorders  (ASD). Furthermore, these skills are considered pivotal to many different dimensions of cognitive and affective development in typical children  and in children with ASD (Mundy, Neal, 2001).
Objectives: The aim of this study is to assess joint and social attention of ASD children within a specific developmental intervention focused on Intersubjectivity Activation and Emotional Sharing (IAES; Venuti, 2003).
Methods: A group of 9 children with ASD (clinical diagnosis by DSM, confirmed by ADOS), aged 7 to 13 years, were videorecorded during weekly music therapy sessions. One session at the beginning of the intervention and one session occurring 12 months later were coded.
A joint attention coding system measured the occurrence and duration of both simple joint attention behaviours (showing, pointing, etc.) and a more complex level of shared activity (active joint engagement). The observation coding system for social attention measured the direction of subject gaze (toward the therapist, toward a shared object or an object held by therapist, non-shared focus).
Results: Data analyses document substantial improvement of joint and social attention skills. Significant increases were found in the duration of joint engagement and in the amount of time during which children’s gaze was directed towards objects of shared activity or towards objects held by the therapist.
Conclusions: Within the IAES developmental intervention, ASD children improved their joint and social attention skills. As these abilities are considered essential to many other dimensions of child social and communication development, we hypothesize that this intervention can lead to improvements in social adjustment.