Behavioral Observations of Joint Attention During Picture Book Reading in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often exhibit difficulties in joint attention.The purpose of this study was to investigate the occurrence of joint attention behaviors in children with ASD during picture book reading task.Three boys with ASD (C1, C2, and C3) participated in this study.The picture book reading task was conducted in both individual and group settings at the rehabilitation facility that all participants attended.The interval recording method was used to analyze the frequency of participants' joint attention behaviors, including Looking at the Picture Book (LPB), Gaze Following (GF) and Referential Looking (RL).The results showed that all participants demonstrated higher frequencies of LPB than GF and RL in both settings.GF and RL occurred more frequently as initiative behaviors than as responsive behaviors.Additionally, all participants exhibited more GF and RL in the individual setting than in the group setting.These findings revealed both similarities and differences in joint attention behaviors between settings, as well as variations in joint attention behaviors.Furthermore, children with ASD may adjust their gaze and engage in joint attention when the reader provides visual cues.Finally, this study provides essential data on joint attention in children with ASD during picture book reading activities.