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Auditory joint attention skills: Development and diagnostic differences during infancy
Lauren B Adamson1, Katharine Suma1, Roger Bakeman1
1Department of Psychology, Georgia State University, United States.
Insights
Auditory joint attention skills develop slower than multimodal ones in children. Toddlers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) showed particular difficulty with auditory bids, impacting their overall joint attention development.
Area of Science:
- Developmental Psychology
- Neurodevelopmental Disorders
- Communication Sciences
Background:
- Joint attention, crucial for social and language development, has traditionally been assessed using multimodal stimuli.
- A systematic evaluation of auditory joint attention skills, encompassing both receptive (RJA) and initiatory (IJA) bids, has been lacking.
Purpose of the Study:
- To introduce and validate a novel assessment for auditory joint attention skills.
- To track the developmental trajectory of auditory joint attention in typically developing (TD) children.
- To investigate the impact of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) on auditory and multimodal joint attention skills.
Main Methods:
- Study 1: Longitudinal assessment of 47 TD children from 12 to 30 months using a novel auditory and multimodal joint attention task.
- Study 2: Cross-sectional assessment of 113 toddlers (TD, ASD, and developmental disorders [DD]) at approximately 22.4 months.
Main Results:
- Auditory joint attention skills were significantly more challenging than multimodal skills across all groups.
- TD children achieved near-ceiling performance on multimodal RJA by 24 months, but not auditory RJA even by 30 months.
- Toddlers with ASD demonstrated deficits in both multimodal RJA and higher-level IJA bids, with minimal success on auditory RJA items.
Conclusions:
- Auditory joint attention skills emerge later and are more difficult to master than multimodal skills.
- Children with ASD exhibit specific challenges in auditory joint attention, particularly in initiating bids.
- Further research is needed to explore the relationship between auditory joint attention, bid variations, and language development.
Abstract:
To date, joint attention skill assessments have focused on children's responses to multimodal bids (RJA) and their initiation of bids (IJA) to multimodal spectacles. Here we gain a systematic view of auditory joint attention skills using a novel assessment that measures both auditory and multimodal RJA and IJA. In Study 1, 47 typically developing (TD) children were tested 5 times from 12 to 30 months to document auditory joint attention skill development. In Study 2, 113 toddlers (39 TD, 33 autism spectrum disorder [ASD], and 41 non-ASD developmental disorders [DD]; average age 22.4 months) were tested to discern the effects of ASD. Our findings fit well within the established depiction of joint attention skills with one important caveat: auditory items were far more difficult to execute than multimodal ones. By 24 months, TD children passed multimodal RJA items at the near-ceiling level, an accomplishment not reached even by 30 months for auditory RJA items. Intentional communicative IJA bids also emerged more slowly to auditory spectacles than to multimodal spectacles. Toddlers with DD outperformed toddlers with ASD on multimodal RJA items but toddlers in both groups rarely passed any auditory RJA items. Toddlers with ASD often monitored their partner's attention during IJA items, albeit less often than toddlers with DD and TD toddlers, but they essentially never produced higher-level IJA bids, regardless of modality. Future studies should investigate further how variations in bids and targets affect auditory joint attention skills and probe the relation between these skills and language development.
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