The Effectiveness of Joint Attention Training Program on Executive Functions and Social Interaction of Children with High Functioning Autism

Autism Spectrum Disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder that affects different types of childhood development. Joint Attention deficit is one of the first diagnostic symptoms of ASD. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of joint attention training on improving executive functions and social interaction in children with high functioning Autism. The present research was a quasi -experimental by pre-test-post-test design with control group. The sample included 30 children with autism in the pre-school age range of Tehran in 2017 who were selected through convenience sampling method and randomly assigned into two groups of experimental and control (15 children in each group). Experimental group received joint attention training program in 13 sessions for 60 minutes while the control group did not receive this intervention. The instruments used in this study were rating scale for Asperger’s syndrome and high-functioning pervasive developmental disorder (Garss, 1994), Coolidge neurobiology inventory (Coolidge, 2002), and autism social Skills profile (Scott Bellini, 2007). The results of covariance analysis showed that there is a significant difference between the groups in executive functions, but there is no significant difference in social interaction. The results also showed that the average of the experimental group in the executive actions (46.06) was higher than the mean of the control group (48.93) which is significant at the level of 0.001. The difference between the mean of the experimental group in social interaction (100.89) and the control group (100.97) was not significant Based on the results of this study, it can be concluded that joint failure is one of the main characteristics of children with autism, and improving this skill will facilitate the development of other functions.