Young children with autism should receive therapy that teaches them how to pay attention to something that someone else is interested in (joint attention).
This study looked to see if teaching children joint attention and teaching children to do pretend play (symbolic play) would help the children acquire language. All children (ages 3-4) in the study received Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy and either joint attention, play therapy, or neither. Both joint attention and play therapy worked and the children learned those skills. Children who received ABA therapy and joint attention therapy improved the most. Play therapy also helped the children, and the authors think this is because the intervention required the children to do joint attention with the therapist.
Or subscribe to feed using a feed reader.
