Teaching responding to joint attention bids to children with autism spectrum disorders

This study was designed to examine the effects of least to most prompting on teaching responding to joint attention bids to preschool age children with autism spectrum disorders during acquisition, maintenance and generalization. The study consisted of baseline, intervention, intermittent, maintenance, and generalization sessions. Maintenance sessions were conducted 4 and 6 weeks after the intervention to determine whether the participant children maintain the acquired joint attention skill. Furthermore, generalization effect of the intervention was tested in pretest-posttest measures. It was tested across the persons. Lastly, social comparison data were collected to examine the social validity of the study. Four preschool children with autism spectrum disorders aged between 5 and 7 participated to this study. These children were attending to Research Institute for the Handicapped at Anadolu University. A multiple probe design across participants was used to assess the effects of least-to-most prompting on teaching responding to joint attention bids. Results indicated that least-to-most prompting was effective on teaching responding to joint attention bids to children with autism spectrum disorders. Results also revealed that participant children were able to maintain the acquired skills 4 and 6 weeks after the intervention and generalize the acquired skills across persons. Furthermore, social comparison data showed that the participant children were able to perform joint attention skills similar to their peers after the intervention. Based on the findings, implications and future research needs were discussed. Keywords: Joint attention, autism spectrum disorders, least-to-most prompting, social comparison.