JOINT ATTENTION IN PREVERBAL CHILDREN - AUTISM AND DEVELOPMENTAL LANGUAGE DISORDER

For preverbal children, episodes of joint attention are contexts for c ommunication with responsive adults. This study describes the joint at tention of 3- to 5-year-old children, 15 with autistic disorder (AD) a nd 15 with developmental language disorder (DLD), during play sessions with unfamiliar adults. Adults used fewer conventional than literal b ids for joint attention with AD children and vice versa with DLD child ren. Children with AD were less likely to engage in joint attention th an children with DLD. In the allocation of attention, AD children moni tored the channel of communication with the adult 37% less often than DLD children. We discuss how perturbations in reciprocal interactions permeate the sharing situation and the implications of this problem fo r the mastery of cultural conventions.