The Role of Joint Attention in Developing Effective Communication in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

This paper explores the role of joint attention in overcoming the key deficits in ASD: social and communication difficulties. The experiment demonstrates the inadequacy of teaching children with ASD to ask questions without developing the ability to recognize the interlocutor’s signals. Even with a significant repertoire of questions, communicative initiatives become mechanical in the absence of joint attention skills. Consequently, the frequency of these initiatives gradually declines, returning to the baseline (almost zero) level. However, with comprehensive training in joint attention (such as tracking and understanding signals in relation to the communicative context, and developing perspective-taking skills as a foundation for Theory of Mind), communicative initiatives grow and remain stable.