Meaningful gazes: Conditioned reinforcement for following gaze as a prerequisite for joint attention

Abstract

Joint attention is an important developmental skill. This series of studies investigated the teaching of component joint attention skills to 10 children with autism ranging in age from three to five years. The goal was to teach gaze shifting within a joint attention interaction. An additional goal was to expand some participants' community of reinforcers to include social reinforcers. Each study employed a single-case research design using design variations for one dependent variable: gaze shifting. All 10 children improved their ability to shift their gaze to a therapist. Four participants demonstrated acquisition of social reinforcers.