Improving Use of Social Communicative Gestures by Children with Autism

Area of Science:

• Developmental Psychology
• Clinical Psychology
• Speech-Language Pathology

Background:

• Social communication difficulties are central to autism spectrum disorder (ASD).
• Gesture use, particularly pointing, is often delayed or atypical in children with ASD, impacting language acquisition.
• Deficits in proximal and distal pointing gestures may hinder social interaction and learning in autistic children.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the effectiveness of prompting and reinforcement in teaching proximal pointing gestures for requesting in children with autism.
• To assess if teaching proximal pointing leads to the spontaneous use of distal pointing gestures.
• To evaluate the maintenance of pointing gestures over time.

Main Methods:

• A nonconcurrent multiple baseline across participants design was used.
• The study involved 12 children with autism, aged 3 to 11 years.
• Intervention focused on prompting and reinforcement to teach proximal pointing for requesting.

Main Results:

• Nine out of 12 participants successfully acquired proximal pointing gestures.
• Participants who acquired proximal pointing also began using distal pointing gestures at increasing distances (0.61m, 1.22m, 1.83m) without further intervention.
• Gesture use was maintained at a 4-week follow-up, though individual variability was noted.

Conclusions:

• Prompting and reinforcement are effective strategies for teaching socially communicative gestures, like pointing, to children with autism.
• Acquisition of proximal pointing may facilitate the development of distal pointing, enhancing functional communication.
• Individual differences in response to intervention highlight the need for tailored approaches in supporting autistic children's communication development.