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The theoretical implications of joint-attention deficits in autism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2008

Peter Mundy  and
Marian Sigman
Peter Mundy*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, UCLA Center for the Health Sciences
Marian Sigman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychiatry, UCLA Center for the Health Sciences
*
Reprint requests may be sent to: Peter Mundy, Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry, UCLA Center for the Health Sciences, 760 Westwood Plaza, Los Angeles, CA 90024.
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Abstract

Deficits in gestural joint-attention behaviors are a prominent feature of young autistic children. Attempts to explain these deficits have called upon the metarepresentational deficit hypothesis (Baron-Cohen, 1988; Leslie & Frith, 1988). However, developmental research suggests that joint-attention skills emerge prior to the cognitive capacity for metarepresentation. Thus, the metarepresentational hypothesis does not appear to provide a parsimonious explanation of autistic joint-attention deficits. An alternative model is proposed that attempts to explain these deficits in terms of the combined negative impact of developmental disturbances in affective, as well as cognitive, processes.

Type
Target Article
Information
Development and Psychopathology , Volume 1 , Issue 3 , July 1989 , pp. 173 - 183
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1989

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