Improving Use of Social Communicative Gestures by Children with Autism

Difficulties in social communication are a core characteristic of autism. Gesture use in children with autism is often delayed or atypical, with reduced frequency, diversity, and spontaneity. Pointing gestures, which typically emerge between 9 and 12 months of age, have been shown repeatedly to predict later language acquisition in both neurotypically developing children and those with autism. Thus, the deficits in proximal and distal pointing gestures observed in children with autism may impede social communication and language learning. Employing a nonconcurrent multiple baseline across participants design, this study examined the efficacy of prompting and reinforcement for teaching proximal pointing to request in 12 children with autism, aged 3 to 11 years. Results showed that 9 of the participants acquired proximal pointing and subsequently emitted distal pointing at distances of 0.61 m, 1.22 m, and 1.83 m (2, 4, and 6 feet) without additional intervention. Proximal and distal pointing was maintained at 4-week follow-up. However, not all participants acquired proximal pointing, highlighting potential variability related to individual characteristics and the need for modified procedures. These findings provide support for the use of prompting and reinforcement to teach socially communicative gestures in children with autism.