Abstract
Objective: Joint attention is defined as the process of coordinating the attention between the individual and an object or event. In this review article, it is aimed to describe the concept of joint attention skills and to evaluate the degree of influence in autism. Method: 112 articles were found in PubMed by using the key words "joint attention, autism". This review is written by summarizing especially the review articles and the articles only focused in joint attention in autism. Results: It is known that autistic children have serious problems in joint attention skills. The social and communicational impairments which cause to consider the diagnosis "autistic disorder" -especially joint attention- (using or responding to eye contact, staring at a certain point and ignoring his name when called) can be noticed as early as 12-18 months by their parents. Discussion: The joint attention deficits noticed by physicians and parents in early years enable the physicians to diagnose autistic disorder. Early diagnosis and intervention is thought to supply the chance to learn the social skills and improve the outcome.
Keywords: Autism, joint attention, social interaction
