Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2025 Aug;53(8):1297-1309.
doi: 10.1007/s10802-025-01325-x. Epub 2025 May 6.

Exploring Tactile Initiation of Joint Attention in Autistic Children

TianZe Wang  1 , HuiShi Huang  1 , LinRu Liu  1 , ShaoLi Lv  1 , YanTing Xu  1 , Yu Xing  1 , Cong You  2 , HongZhu Deng  3
Affiliations

Exploring Tactile Initiation of Joint Attention in Autistic Children

TianZe Wang et al. Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol. 2025 Aug.

Abstract

Initiation of joint attention (IJA) is often impaired in children who may be diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Traditionally, assessments of IJA have focused on visual and auditory means of communication. Recent research has expanded the understanding of joint attention to include tactile interactions. To investigate the early development of IJA in toddlers, particularly focusing on the differences in sensory modalities, we conducted a prospective study tracking 60 toddlers (30 males) up to 36 months of age, including 16 who were later diagnosed with ASD. We used videos taken during the administration of Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales-Developmental Profile to code for IJA corresponding to different sensory modalities. During the second year of life, autistic children displayed lower frequencies of visual, auditory, and combined visual-auditory IJA compared to typically developing peers. Conversely, autistic children exhibited higher frequencies of tactile IJA. Notably, the frequencies of tactile IJA at 12 months were correlated with social symptoms at 24 months, showing a positive correlation across all participants and a negative correlation specifically within the ASD group. These results suggest that differences in the use of different sensory modalities of IJA may influence the development of future social communication abilities. Clinical Trial Registration: www.chictr.org.cn , identifier ChiCTR2100049811, 2021-08-10.

Keywords: Autism spectrum disorder; Initiation of joint attention; Longitudinal; Touch.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Compliance with Ethical Standards. Ethics Approval: This work has been approved by the Ethical Committee of the Third Affiliated Hospital, Sun Yat-sen University, China (approval number [2020]02–118 - 01). Conflict of Interest: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

References

    1. Ackerley, R., Saar, K., McGlone, F., & Backlund Wasling, H. (2014). Quantifying the sensory and emotional perception of touch: Differences between glabrous and hairy skin. Frontiers in Behavioral Neuroscience, 8, 34. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnbeh.2014.00034 - DOI - PubMed - PMC
    1. Adamson, L. B., Bakeman, R., Suma, K., & Robins, D. L. (2019). An Expanded View of Joint Attention: Skill, Engagement, and Language in Typical Development and Autism. Child Development, 90(1), e1–e18. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12973 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Association, A. P. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-5™, 5th ed https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596 ]. American Psychiatric Publishing, Inc. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596
    1. Barbaresi, W., Cacia, J., Friedman, S., Fussell, J., Hansen, R., Hofer, J., Roizen, N., Stein, R. E. K., Vanderbilt, D., & Sideridis, G. (2022). Clinician Diagnostic Certainty and the Role of the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule in Autism Spectrum Disorder Diagnosis in Young Children. JAMA Pediatrics, 176(12), 1233–1241. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapediatrics.2022.3605 - DOI - PubMed - PMC
    1. Barbaro, J., & Dissanayake, C. (2013). Early markers of autism spectrum disorders in infants and toddlers prospectively identified in the Social Attention and Communication Study. Autism, 17(1), 64–86. https://doi.org/10.1177/1362361312442597 - DOI - PubMed

Publication types