Is it possible to teach joint attention?

I would like to know if there are any studies on whether children with ASDs can learn joint attention. How do we teach this vital skill that most babies have by 12 months?
Thanks
Danielle

Hi QuinoaKid, and welcome to IAN.

A deficit in the ability to respond to someone else's offer to share attention -- whether by pointing, eye gaze, or words ("Look! See the doggie!") -- is a hallmark of autism. There have been a great many studies on understanding joint attention in autism, and some on how to help individuals with ASD learn this skill. See, for example, these studies:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17216332?dopt=abstract

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17050765?dopt=abstract

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18229990?dopt=abstract

If you would like to explore the great many studies that exist, you can access abstracts at http://www.pubmed.gov. Try searching on "autism joint attention intervention." In a few cases, full articles are available to the public; most of the time, you would need to pay for them or visit a university/medical school library to find them.

Another thought, as far as practical methods for working with an infant or toddler on this skill: ask your treatment team, especially your behavioral expert. From what I have seen, interventions directed at improving joint attention are mostly behaviorally based. (That is, they involve rewarding good joint attention behavior.)

It is absolutely possible to teach a child with autism joint attention. I taught my son. I never used a formal behavioral program. Using my "mom's instinct" I began with a game which we called "the poking game." All my kids (I have two older NT kids) loved this game. Basically, you try to poke the other person and at the same time avoid being poked. If you get in a poke on the other person without them poking you, you score! This was one of the ways I helped my son learn basic emotional engagement. Later, as he got the hang and was enjoying the game, I taught him how to "distract me" so he could get in a poke. I first distracted him: "Look at the light!" I would point to the light on the other side of the room and look at it. I would wait until he followed my point. And then I would poke him! And I would say, OOh, I tricked you! I poked you when you were looking at the light!" Then I taught him how to distract ME by saying to me "Look at the light." I would not look unless he was gazing at it and pointing to it first. I challenged him by not looking immediately, he had to look back at me FIRST to see if I was looking. This is true joint attention - eye gaze between your face and the common referrent, the light. As soon as all this happened, I looked at the light. Then I scaffolded for him to poke me - OOH, I'm looking at the light, I'm not paying attention to you, etc." When he poked me, I did NOT tell him "good job getting me to look at the light." What I did say was "You rascal! You tricked me! You scored!" Therefore he was reinforced not by pleasing me, but by his own feelings of competence.

This was just the beginning. I worked long and hard with my son in this area and his other core deficit areas, at first by the seat of my pants, and then using Relationship Development Intervention, which has been a godsend.

Oh yes, in addition to teaching joint attention, one can also teach children with autism empathy, theory of mind, flexible thinking, and social and emotional regulation and co-regulation. These are the areas that interventions should focus on, not teaching of discrete skills.

Hi There!
I'm a bit late to this posting, but we taught my daughter joint attention in the following way RDI strategy):
1. Have the child carry something with you like a beanbag chair, laundry basket.
2. While you are carrying the item (very slowly) together, sing a simple song chant about carrying/working together like, "Walking, walking. We are walking. Walking, walking down the hall;" (whatever really!) You want to focus on having the child stay with you. My daughter would plow ahead, faster than me, not looking at me.
3. While you are walking and singing going really slow, STOP. Inevitably, your kiddo will keep going and only stop when he/she realizes that the item has stopped them. They will probably look up at you.
4. When they look at you, say something about thank you for stopping. We're working together! Then repeat over and over.+If your child doesn't look at you, shake the item and make a noise to get their attention.
This really helped my daughter. Also, playing games with an element of surprise like Pop-up Pirate or Crocodile dentist. When the object poops up (as in Pop-up Pirate, tickle or wrestle with him/her. Repeat a lot. Then, when they win, don't immediatly "attack them with your excitiement. See if they look at you, expecting you to celebrate with them. This also helps with emotion sharing.Be creative. Think of anything simple to do together where you can unexpecedly stop the action and get a moment of joint attention. Then, keep expanding.
I can't tell you the diffenence in my daughter once we extablished joint sttention and emotion sharing! Good luck!