Article Review on Autism

Article Review on Autism
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Joint intervention which occurs when two people are focused on an object can meet the needs of children with autism better through enhancing language skills acquisition and development. Bono et al (2004) delve into the role of joint intervention and how this influences language development in autistic children. The authors proposed that the use of joint attention skills could moderate intervention and language development. Furthermore, they looked into similar studies that suggest that joint attention skills are associated with improved language development. Nonetheless, the relation between the two is conditional to the extent that child’s response to joint attention and language skills already acquired also influence outcome of gain in language skills. Essentially, the characteristics of children with autism should be taken into account when understanding the role of intervention on development outcomes.
One of the major strengths of the article is that the authors point out that the theory does suggest that joint engagement is related to language development. Essentially, a child’s ability to acquire language skills is dependent on how they tune into the proximal environment and features of the structured social world (Bono et al., 2004). The child can understand and pick out verbal and non verbal communication, and interpret information form ‘tuning in’. The role of joint attention skills comes into play through organization of perceptual information in a way that facilitates language skills acquisition and comprehension of referential cues in diverse social settings and interactions. However, children with autism are impairment in their ability to utilize joint attention skills, as they have fewer joint attention behaviors. Furthermore their response to joint engagement with adults is inconsistent, while there is delay in development of joint attention skills (Bono et al., 2004).
Various forms of intervention, including education instruction, and the strategies used seek to improve declarative joint attention (Bono et al., 2004). In light of this, the authors looked into the relation between intervention and language development. In the analysis, the researchers also sought to find out whether higher order effects were present before considering the main effects. To also improve analysis, there was a need to highlight on previous literature touching on the impact of joint attention skills and language development. The choice of the 29 children with autism was dependent on criteria set by the DSM-IV Autistic Disorder and Autism Diagnostic Interview Revised/ Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule Generic (Bono et al., 2004).
To assess language abilities the authors relied on the Reynell or the ClinicalEvaluation of Language Fundamentals-Revised (CELF-R) (Bono et al., 2004). Both tests help to understand expressive language and verbal...