Behavior Evaluation Of Joint Attention In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders

Aim :To study the difference of joint attention among the children with Autism Spectrum Disorders(ASD),developmental disorders(DD) and typically developing children(TD).Explore the characteristic of joint attention in autistic children.Methods: The participants were 28 children with ASD, 15 developmental disorders children, 25 typically developing children who visit the department of children’s health and psychology of Children’s Hospital Affiliated Chongqing Medical University. Each paticipant was administered in joint attention tasks.The Initiating Joint Attention(IJA) and the Responding to Joint Attention(RJA) have been recorded and analysed.Results:(1)The children with ASD showed significantly less IJA and RJA compared to the TD(p<0.01), and were less than DD in High level IJA and RJA(p<0.01),while there was no statistical difference of Low level IJA between the two groups.(2)There was a significant negative correlation between the IJA and the Autism Dignostic Observation Schedule scores in the autistic children.(3)No significant correlation was detected among different ages in the autistic children.(4)The children with ASD showedsignificantly less High level IJA than Low level IJA(p<0.05).68%(19/28)children with ASD hadn’t appeared the high level IJA in the assessment.While the low level IJA,the ratio was 32%(9/28).Conclusion:(1)The children with ASD displayed deficits in IJA and RJA,especially in high level IJA.(2)The deficits of JA in ASD was corelated with the severity of autistic symptoms,however there was no evidence prove age would impact it.