Targets and cues: Gaze-following in children with autism
Targets and cues: Gaze-following in children with autism
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DOI：
10.1017/s0021963098003035
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发表时间：
1998-10-01
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Moore, C
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Leekam, SR;Hunnisett, E;Moore, C
众所周知，自闭症儿童在与他人分享注意力方面存在困难。然而，一种共同注意的行为，即跟随另一个人的头部转动和注视方向的能力，可能在没有分享注意的情况下实现。那么，为什么自闭症儿童在这方面有困难呢？在这项研究中，我们通过测试三种不同环境下的学龄自闭症儿童来检验这种困难的程度；实验、观察和家长访谈。我们还测试了是否可以通过增加儿童对环境目标和社会线索的关注来促进他们定位他人头部和凝视的能力。实验和观察的结果表明，相当大比例的自闭症儿童在跟随他人的头部转动方面没有困难。然而，言语心理年龄高的孩子和言语心理年龄低的孩子之间存在差异。然而，高心理年龄的儿童（超过48个月）能够自发地适应另一个人的头部转动，低心理年龄的儿童在这种反应上有困难。然而，当添加线索（指、语言）或从目标那里得到反馈时，他们的表现就会有所改善。家长访谈数据表明，自闭症儿童，无论他们的心理年龄如何，比正常发育的儿童晚几年开始遵循转头和注视方向。注意力和语言的发展被认为是解释这种发育迟缓的可能因素。
Children with autism are known to have difficulties in sharing attention with others. Yet one joint attention behaviour, the ability to follow another person's head turn and gaze direction, may be achieved without necessarily sharing attention. Why, then, should autistic children have difficulties with it? In this study we examined the extent of this difficulty by testing school-aged autistic children across three different contexts; experiment, observation, and parent interview. We also tested whether the ability to orient to another person's head and gaze could be facilitated by increasing children's attention to environmental targets and social cues. Results for experiment and observation demonstrate that a sizeable proportion of children with autism did not have difficulties with following another's head turn. There was a difference between children with high and low verbal mental ages, however. Whereas children with higher mental ages (over 48 months) were able to orient spontaneously to another person's head turn, children with lower mental ages had difficulties with this response. When cues were added (pointing, language) or when feedback from targets was given, however, their performance improved. Parent interview data indicated that children with autism, whatever their mental age, began to follow head turn and gaze direction years later than typically developing children. Developments in attention and language are proposed as possible factors to account for this developmental delay.