Abstract
Recently, it has been argued that communication deficits in children with autism are caused by joint attention deficits. The present study examined the process of establishing joint attention and communication in a 3-year-5-month-old girl with autism, through the Dohsa method called toke'au taiken. A total of 6 sessions was held over 18 weeks. Each session, which took about 50 minutes, consisted of a toke'au taiken period and a counseling period for her parents. As the girl's emotional stability improved and her mother's depressed mood became alleviated, joint attentional exchange between the child and her parents increased. Her active relationship to child-care staff and her peers, including joint attentional behaviors and imitating behaviors, increased as well.
