JOINT ATTENTION AND EARLY SOCIAL COMMUNICATION - IMPLICATIONS FOR RESEARCH ON INTERVENTION WITH AUTISM

Highly structured intensive early intervention may lead to significant developmental gains for many children with autism However, a clear un derstanding of early intervention effects may currently be hampered by a lack of precision in outcome measurement. To improve the precision and sensitivity of outcome assessment if may be useful to integrate re search on the nature of the social disturbance of autism with research on early intervention. In this regard it may be that measures of nonv erbal social communication skills are especially important in the stud y of preschool intervention programs. This is because these measures a ppear to tap into a cardinal component of the early social disturbance of autism, and because these measures have been directly related to n eurological cognitive, and affective processes that may play a role in autism The research and theory that support the potential utility of these types of measures for early intervention research are reviewed. Examples are provided to illustrate how these types of measures may as sist in addressing current issues and hypotheses about early intervent ion with autism including the ''recovery hypothesis'' the ''pivotal sk ill hypothesis,'' and the relative effectiveness of discrete trial ver sus incidental learning approaches to early intervention. A cybernetic model of autism is also briefly described in an effort to better unde rstand one potential component of early psychoeducational treatment ef fects with children with autism.