ABSTRACT
Children are rarely diagnosed with autism in the first two years of life, as the full range of symptoms required for a diagnosis is usually not evident before this time. Yet early signs of autism are apparent in infants of one year old and less (Baranek, 1999; Osterling & Dawson, 1994; Wing, 1971). These early signs include a range of abnormalities in initiation and response to other people, imitation, eye contact, smiling, social and nonsocial play, use of gesture and speech, interactions with objects, motor stereotypies, and unusual sensory preoccupations. The earliest and most marked of these impairments, however, are those that relate to early social interaction and communication. Of these, one of the most discriminating is the impairment in joint attention-the ability to coordinate attention between people and objects (Baron-Cohen et al., 1996; Cox et al., 1998; Curcio, 1978; Lord, 1995; Loveland & Landry, 1986; Mundy, Sigman, Ungerer, & Sherman, 1986).
